Oedipus Rex Essay, Research Paper

Oedipus Rex

In the narrative of Oedipus Rex, Sophocles portrays the chief character,

Oedipus, as a good natured individual that has bad judgement and infirmity. Oedipus

makes a few bad determinations and is condemned to profound agony because of his

pride. I agree with Aristotle that he brings it all on to himself because of

his ain personal pride.

One twenty-four hours Oedipus finds out that there is a prognostication that depicts him

killing his male parent and get marrieding his female parent. The prognostication may hold been proven

untrue if he wouldn & # 8217 ; Ts have put himself on such a high base. It all started

one twenty-four hours when he met up with King Laius:

Seated in it. The groom taking the Equus caballuss

Forced me off the route at his Godhead & # 8217 ; s bid ;

But as this charioteer lurched over towards me

I struck him in my fury & # 8230 ; I killed him ( 1.2.764-772 ) .

Oedipus met the King Laius on a span and was excessively proud to allow him go through

foremost, and so the King pushed him out of the manner. In a tantrum of fury, Oedipus

killed him. All the piece, an old adult male, Teiresias, knew that it was King Laius

that Oedipus had killed. Oedipus didn & # 8217 ; t even know that it was King Laius that he

killed. In the hereafter, when Teiresias tries to convert Oedipus that he is the

slayer, Oedipus turns him off and calls him a prevaricator and blames it all on him:

And I & # 8217 ; ll state you what I think:

You planned it, you had it done, you all but

Killed him with your ain custodies: if you had eyes,

I & # 8217 ; vitamin Ds say that the offense was yours, and yours entirely.

( 1.2.331-334 )

Teiresius is a unsighted prophesier, and it is possible that if Oedipus had listened to

him in the first topographic point, his internal agony may hold been much less terrible.

He should hold accepted what he had to state as fa

Nutmeg State no affair how incredible.

Oedipus

I think that I myself may be accursed

By my ain nescient edict.

Jocasta

You speak queerly.

It makes me tremble to look at you, my King.

Oedipus

I am non certain that the unsighted adult male can non see,

But I should cognize better if you were to state me & # 8212 ;

( 1.2.700-704 )

The prognostication besides stated that Oedipus will be damned in matrimony. He

marries Jocasta and he regulations as the King of Thebes and is good respected by all

of his people. Once Oedipus realizes that he has married his ain female parent and

killed his ain male parent and took his throne, he goes into a great depression. He

can no longer look into the eyes of the people that have entrusted him for the

last few old ages, so he stabs out his eyes:

Ah God!

It was true!

All the prognostications!

& # 8212 ; Now,

O visible radiation, may I look on to you for the last clip!

I, Oedipus

Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his matrimony

damned,

Damned in the blood he shed with his ain manus!

( 2.4.1115-1124 )

All of the agony that Oedipus encounters is brought on by himself

because of his huge pride. Aristotle & # 8217 ; s theories seem to keep true. If he

wasn & # 8217 ; t so proud, he would hold ne’er killed King Laius and told Teiresius that

he was a prevaricator. In the beginning, Teiresius was merely seeking to ease him easy

into the truth. Oedipus was excessively proud to see any truths and he refused to

believe that he could be responsible for such a atrocious offense. He learned a

lesson about life and how there is more to it than merely one individual & # 8217 ; s pride.

Work Cited

Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. World Literature. Orlando: Holt,

Rinehart and Winston, 1993. 307-367.