(Sophocles 6). After Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx, he was crowned king, and the city was joyful. Certainly, Oedipus was proud of his new position and his wife, Jocasta. Life could not possibly become better, so he enjoyed it, without wasting time searching for the truth. He was not even aware about his ignorance to the truth.
While traveling, he clashes with a stranger, in a fit of rage, he kills the stranger and all but one who accompanied him. After this, Oedipus realizes he has come to a three-way crossroad. Sophocles tries to make it clear to the reader
Oedipus ended up killing the charioteer and his father, thus fulfilling the first half of the prophecy. On the path to Thebes, he came across the Sphinx, a head of a human and the body of a
Oedipus discovers the body and is in so much grief he uses the golden pins that held Jocasta’s dress and “spears the pupils of his eyes” (93). This unbearable mishap is the last article of the proclamation that Oedipus carries out. Furthermore, in an attempt to keep his children, Creon advises him to “not be the master in everything. What you once won and held did not stay with you all your lifelong” (107). Oedipus was once a man that was not physically blind but in truth he was.
With the realization of his demise, Oedipus tries to protect himself from punishment and shame by gouging out his own eyes and exiling himself out to die in the place destiny prevented him from dying originally. After many years of luxurious living, Oedipus’s predestined fate tears his life apart and returns him to the place he should have died as an infant, the mountain. Through the use of, departure, initiation, and return, Sophocles displays the journey of Oedipus. Not only is Oedipus the King evidence of the use of the hero’s journey throughout many famous plays, movies, and books across all cultures and time periods, but it also seen as a perfect tragedy, in which the audience experiences both pity and fear for the main
Critical Lens As said by Benjamin Disraeli in Contarini Fleming, “Circumstances are beyond the control of man; but his conduct is in his own power.” Although this quote originates from 1832, centuries before Oedipus the King was published, its logic can still be applied to Sophocles’ play. Disraeli is saying that no one can help the circumstances they are born in, but everyone has the capability to live how they want. At face-value, this may seem true; in the end everyone has the ability to make a decision. Yet, it is their circumstances that drive the choices people make.
Everyone tries to convince themselves that it is all lies when you receive bad news about anything that you don’t believe in. In the play Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles in 430 BC, Oedipus is in denial about who killed the previous king, Laius. The town has asked Oedipus to save them from the disease that has spread killing all the life in town by finding the person who killed Lauis. Oedipus tells the people he will find the culprit and do whatever he needs to do to punish them. When he is given the truth, he is unwilling to accept the truth.
Having gone through a moment of peripeteia, Oedipus’ story now takes an emotional toll on the audience. After Oedipus has experienced his downfall, his catharsis is set into motion by his desire to make his own final consequence and end fate. Oedipus now carrying the burden of realization about the fate he could never have escaped destroys his mentality and anything he knew about himself. He takes the drastic decision to blind himself with the pins from his mother’s dress after she kills herself, sparking pity in the audience. Oedipus accepted the responsibility for his actions, begging to the Chorus Leader & Creon, “Hide me somewhere outside the land of Thebes, or slaughter me, or hurl me in the sea, where you will never gaze on me again.”
Yet that riddle was not for the first-comer to read; it needed the skill of a seer. And none such had you! Neither found by the help of the birds, nor straight from any God. No, I came; I silenced her, I the ignorant Oedipus” (239-244). Oedipus tells him that the murderer could not be him, because it was him that helped Thebes when they most needed him.
Throughout the tragedy of Oedipus the King, Oedipus displays his imperfectly noble being for all to see. While Oedipus had saved the Thebans from the Sphinx’s riddle, Oedipus’s nobel pride and anger lead to his destruction as he attempted to find Laios’s murderer. In his mistreatment of Teiresias, and his false allegations towards Creon being a usurper, Oedipus shows his imperfectly noble character as he foolishly attempts to fight fate and the gods will. Oedipus and his imperfectly noble nature appear again and again as he attempts to solve the murder of the previous King.
Oedipus is defined as Latinized form of the Greek Οιδιπους (Oidipous), meaning "swollen foot" from (oideo) "to swell" and πους (pous) "foot". In Greek legend Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta. He unwittingly slew his father and married his mother. Oedipus was a great king but the Sphinx riddle was a perfect analogy of Oedipus’s life and this is evident through the plot events. Firstly there is three parts of the sphinx riddle, and the first part of the riddle was “What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning…” this riddle was first mentioned in the story when Oedipus wanted to pass through the gates of Thebsis but was stopped by the sphinx.
In the beginning Oedipus know very little, he came from corinth to thebes like a stranger he doesn't know the mess he is in and the mess about to occur. Other people know, and hide the truth from oedipus. Oedipus has killed his father, saved thebes from the sphinx and its riddle, and become king. The citizens believe that solving the Sphinx’s riddle makes Oedipus wise.
Oedipus solved the riddle of the sphinx which ultimately saved the Kingdom of Thebes from the plague. This made Oedipus a respected ruler that was well liked in Thebes. His time as ruler eventually came to an unexpected end. Although Oedipus could not control his fate, his confidence in himself, determination and stubbornness to find out who killed Laius led to his downfall. Throughout the play Oedipus struggles with not being able to solve this murder.
In Ancient Greek mythology, fate is the focal point of many plays and is significant in establishing the catharsis that Greek tragedies provide for the audience. The playwrights use the catharsis to allude to the general theme that people cannot escape their fate, and using symbolism is an effective way to emphasize the theme. Sophocles, the Ancient Greek playwright of Oedipus Rex, uses the symbolism of blindness to develop the play’s theme and teach the audience a lesson about fate. Sophocles uses blindness to symbolize to ability to see truth and accept fate.
Today in recent news from our very own messenger we came to find that the once great city of thebes that was on its way to it's own demolish since it's king laius died and was replaced by a young man named Oedipus,has regained it's livelyness back but not in a good way. We have learned that the new king Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta though he had no idea since he was sent to be killed he then became the son of polybus and his wife. The reason for him being sent off was because of an horrible oricle, that oricle has come true he came to the the place where three roads met and murdered his own father and his army. He then became king of thebes and married the lady Jocasta and bared children with neither one knowing that they where mother
