Think of the biggest piece of drama a family member or friend of yours has ever told you. Maybe it was something that shocked you because of its audacity? Did that tidbit of perplexing information make you think differently about said person of thing? Knowing something so shock can often alter our vision as to how we see people, usually based on what we know or have heard of their past. All of the movies that have ever been produced in all of Hollywood, or plays that have been acted out on Broadway combined cannot even approach the perplexity and subtle hint of just plain ignorance of Oedipus in the play. Throughout the play of Oedipus The King Oedipus is continuously plagued by the events of his past that he just never seems to piece together …show more content…
Now that he knows the truth you would think that he would do everything that he could, such as move away from his parents so he leaves his adopted parents still not know who his true parents are. This is an example of Oedipus’s unknown ignorance. This is his first step towards fulfilling the prophecy without actually knowing so. Ignorance is defined as a lack of knowledge, education, or awareness and I cannot think of on better word to describe his life, beginning from this first move away (so he thinks) from his fate. As Oedipus will soon learn sometimes it is better to do nothing at all than to try and control your own destiny, especially if you do not fully understand …show more content…
To tie this back into the key role of the ignorance of Oedipus, he has now completed the oracle 's prophecy and is married to his mother. The big significance is that all of this is happening without Oedipus, even realizing what is taking place. For Oedipus his life is going great so he thinks. He is the son of a king and queen of Corinth who got to experience the childhood of royalty, he believes that he is far away from the prophecy’s teachings to not be partaking in anything that the oracle described, and he is now the ruler of Thebes by just simply answering a riddle. I’ll restate this once again, all the man had to do to be placed as the king of the city of Thebes was answer one riddle, the questions we are mainly asked about as children in todays age. With so much going right for Oedipus it was just a matter of time before something went
Throughout the play, Oedipus thinks of himself as being on the same level as the gods. Oedipus is described as being arrogant, intelligent, and full of great wisdom. One of Oedipus’ greatest accomplishments includes figuring out the riddle of the sphinx, a monster that guards the city. Figuring out the riddle of the sphinx gave Oedipus the fate of the city. Oedipus is rewarded by marrying the queen and becoming king. Oedipus, being all great, believes he can solve who killed the king. Oedipus knows that it has been prophesied that the son of the king and queen would grow up to murder the king and marry his mother. Oedipus believes the kingdom is rightfully his and when his first son is born they chain him up outside the city. Oedipus thinks he has beaten the gods once again, and has escaped his fate. When Oedipus finds out the truth, that he had married his mother, his is so drowned out by his suffering. Oedipus’ former hubris leads to his
The prophecy drove the Oedipus away from home; the terror of the predictions was too much to live with. Oedipus tried everything not to meet the prophecy, and still when he came to Thebes and became a king Oedipus married an older lady. It was his choice, even when he knew there was a danger of him to know mothers bad, he made it.
His arrogance is shown in the very first lines he speaks, “Here I am – myself – you all know me, / the world knows my fame: / I am Oedipus” (7-9). When Oedipus is told by the oracle that he will marry his mother and kill his father, he arrogantly thinks he can run away from his fate. Believing that Polybus and Merope were his biological parents, Oedipus fled Corinth, attempting to escape his destiny. Oedipus ' pride is revealed in his belief that he is greater than the gods. He believes that he is capable of establishing his own destiny apart from the gods ' control or help. He flees his home to try to thwart the prophecy; but just as Jocasta’s fate was inevitable, so was Oedipus’. Oedipus ends up committing the two acts the prophecy projected, though he does not know it at the
Although he was unaware of what was to come, Oedipus does make an attempt in escaping from a part of his destiny that would eventually occur. He is allegedly the son of Queen Merope and King Polybus of Corinth, until a man tells him that he is not his father’s son. Curiosity creeps into Oedipus’ mind, so one day he sets out for Delphi. He receives an oracle from Apollo which says that he would “couple with [his] mother” (873) and “kill [his] father” (875). Disgusted and humiliated, Oedipus abandons Corinth – “running toward some place where [he] would never see the shame of those oracles come true” (878-880). Reaching a crossroad, Oedipus kills Laius, the king of Thebes; later on in the play, he tells his wife Jocasta: “And you, his wife, I’ve touched your body with these, the hands that killed your husband cover you with blood” (908-909). “Apollo told me once – it is my fate – I must make love with my own mother, shed my father’s blood with my own hands. So for years I have given Corinth a wide berth, and it ha...
The play's plot, in a nutshell, develops like this. After solving the riddle of the Sphynx, who had kept Thebes under a curse of some kind, Oedipus is invited to become king of the city. He marries Jocasta, the widow of the previous king, and they have two children. When the play begins, Thebes is again under some sort of curse, and Oedipus tries to find out its cause so that he can rescue the city. He is told that the cause of the curse is that the murderer of the previous king is still in the city and has gone unpunished. In the process of searching for the murderer, Oedipus discovers that it is he, himself, who is responsible and that he is actually the son of Jocasta and her previous husband. Horrified by his sins of incest and murder, Oedipus claws out his eyes. Jocasta commits suicide because she is so disgraced.
Oedipus’ impulsive nature leads him to discovering the truth and reveals that he has indeed fulfilled the prophecy he was running from. After Oedipus becomes king of Thebes, the people of Thebes become plagued. Oedipus’ feels responsible for saving the people of Thebes. Oedipus’ pride to save the city later turns to pity after he divulges the sin he has committed.
Oedipus thinks his human powers can match anything put in front of him. He forces other characters to tell him things, which again creates his tragic ending. (O790) Oedipus by not knowing his identity seems to create his own tragedy. Throughout the entire play, he is blind to everything people are telling him. (O320) He continues to badger Teiresias to answer things that Oedipus does not believe is true. If he only stopped, asking questions his fate might have been different. (O385) Because of these answers, he begins to suspect that people are plotting against him. He feels that he is above such lowly deeds. His own conceit and blind confidence in himself helps him continue towards a tragic ending. (O452-460) While Teiresias was predicting the future of Oedipus, he should have been smart enough to listen. He should have started to change his ways before he ended up destroying himself. Oedipus' guilt was beginning to play tricks on his mind. At the beginning of the play, Oedipus was on the top of the mortal world. Now he is finding out the truth about his past and his world starts to crumble around him.
The play "Oedipus Rex" is a very full and lively one to say the least. Everything a reader could ask for is included in this play. There is excitement, suspense, happiness, sorrow, and much more. Truth is the main theme of the play. Oedipus cannot accept the truth as it comes to him or even where it comes from. He is blinded in his own life, trying to ignore the truth of his life. Oedipus will find out that truth is rock solid. The story is mainly about a young man named Oedipus who is trying to find out more knowledge than he can handle. The story starts off by telling us that Oedipus has seen his moira, his fate, and finds out that in the future he will end up killing his father and marrying his mother. Thinking that his mother and father were Polybos and Merope, the only parents he knew, he ran away from home and went far away so he could change his fate and not end up harming his family. Oedipus will later find out that he cannot change fate because he has no control over it, only the God's can control what happens. Oedipus is a very healthy person with a strong willed mind who will never give up until he gets what he wants. Unfortunately, in this story these will not be good trait to have.
Not only does ignorance have a negative impact on people, it is also “the root and stem of all evil” (Plato), which can destroy a person. To start off, self-superiority can cloud a person’s judgment; making it evident that intelligence can easily be lost to arrogance. To add on, anger and the human tendency to make rash decisions can also contribute to ignorance, resulting in eventual downfall. Lastly, unconscious attempts to blind yourself from the truth can result in the committing of major sins. Tragedy occurs in “Oedipus the King” when ignorance causes disastrous events, proving that lack of knowledge can result in their misfortune.
Oedipus is the main character in the play Oedipus the King. Oedipus is thought of as a tragic figure because he was doomed from birth. Tiresias, an old blind prophet, told Oedipus' parents about Oedipus' fate. He told them that Oedipus would kill his father and sleep with his mother. So, his parents decided to have him killed, only it did not happen that way. He was passed off by two shepherds and finally to the King and Queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope to raise him as their own. Oedipus finds his way back to Thebes and on the way kills his father, but Oedipus did not know that one of the men he killed was his real father. This is the beginning of the prophecy coming true. In short Oedipus obtains the throne, Marries his mother and has kids with her. Oedipus' fate has come together without him even realizing what is going on. Eventually he is told what has happened and asks to be banished by his uncle/brother-in-law Creon. The tragedy in Oedipus' life began with his birth and the realization by his parents that his whole life was doomed.
The story follows a main character named Oedipus who is a strong and determined leader. “I shall; speak my mind unflinchingly,” said Oedipus (343). He is not afraid to speak or do anything that it takes to find what he is looking for. The reader may feel a sense of fear as to weather or not Oedipus will find out that he married his mother and that he is searching for himself for the murder of Laius. Oedipus is also a king to be feared; yet his fate is pitiful. He is a “Sorry spectacle/ That loathing cannot choose but pity” (1293-1294). Clueless to these actions Oedipus murdered his father Laius, married his mother Jocasta, and willingly blinded himself. A character such as Oedipus, evokes feelings in the reader, such as being transported to a different world, or feeling better about ones
... self-awareness, ignorance, doubt, and awareness. The pain of loss and discovery that Oedipus must overcome eventually shape him into a more mature, humble, and humane character. This psychological journey from arrogant blindness to self-awareness and understanding models the journey each of us struggle with while trying to come to terms with the realities of our world an ourselves. Humans, of course, have not changed. When explaining the concept of Oedipal complexes, Sigmund Freud himself boldly stated, "The dream of having sexual intercourse with one's mother was as common then as it is today." And pride, just as much as delusions and desires, is a part of human nature we all must learn to manage so it does not blind us. Thus, the play Oedipus Rex still reveals some of the deepest psychological truths about human existence, over 2,000 years and civilizations later.
From the very beginning, Oedipus was destined to fulfill Apollo's prophecy of killing his father. Even though King Lauis tries to kill Oedipus to stop the fulfillment of this shameful prophecy, fate drives the Corinthian messenger to save Oedipus. What the gods fortell will come true and no human can stop it from happening, not even the kings. Oedipus is once again controlled by this power when he leaves the place of his child hood after he hears that he is to kill his father and marry his mother. "I shall shrink from nothing...to find the the murderer of Laius...You are the murderer..." Oedipus tried to stop the prophecy from coming true by leaving Corinth and only fate can make Oedipus turn to the road where he kills his true father. Leaving Corinth makes Oedipus lose his childhood by making him worry of such issues young people should not have to worry about and becoming a king of a strange land. Last of all, Oedipus carries the last part of the prophecy out, marrying his mother. " I would... never have been known as my mother's husband. Oedipus has no control over the outcome of his life. Fate causes Oedipus to have known the answer to the Sphinx's riddle and win his marriage to his mother, Jocasta. Had fate not intervened, the chances of marrying Jocasta would have been small since there is an enourmous number of people and places to go. Oedipus loses his sense of dignity after he discovers he is not only a murderer, but also that he had committed incest.
Oedipus was a victime of fate, his futur was foretold by an Oracle, he had no way of knowing that his wife was his mother nor that the stranger he killed was his father. Oedipus could not prevent his own downfall. Oedipus was the king of Thebes, he became king when he cured the city of a deadly plague. He cured the plague by solving the riddle of the mythical creature, the Sphinkx. Now the city is suffering from another plague and as king Oedipus must solve the riddle of this one.
When he confirms through two messengers and an oracle that he is destined to marry his mother and kill his father, he completely panics. He knows that is something he definitely wants to avoid, so he decided he would attempt to change his fate. But at that time, he did not realize that your fate is your fate, and it will not change. When Oedipus realizes what his future holds, he decides to avoid it at all costs. As a result, he picked up and ran away.