As a result of this terrible destruction of a man’s life and his family, the reader would consider the gods guilty and evil. The gods followed four steps to destroy Oedipus completely. First, they controlled his fate and led him to murder his father, and marry his mother. They provided people with the power of prophecy to make Laius and Jocasta give away their child. Not only that, but Apollo’s oracle told Oedipus about his terrible fate that involve his parents to make him move to Thebes.
Except he meets up with a man on the road and kills him. He then finds a castle that is being terrorized by a sphinx and answers the riddle it asks. He then marries the Queen and rules over the kingdom. In the end, the city is threatened by a plague that the oracle said will cease when the city gets rid of the one who murdered the king, Oedipus announces that the murderer will be punished. However, while searching for the truth Oedipus discovers that he is the murderer and the son of his wife.
When a young man, Oedipus was warned by an oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He fled home, thinking he would be able to avoid this fate, embarking on a series of adventures that resulted in the exact fulfillment of the prophecy. Along the way, he solved the riddle of the Sphinx, saving Thebes and becoming her king as well as Jocasta's new husband‹but not before he killed, in a fit of uncontrolled anger, a stranger at a crossroads. The stranger, of course, was his true father, Laius. After Oedipus had been in power in Thebes for some time, a plague began to kill Theban citizens.
Oedipus the King is Indeed a Tragic Hero The downfall of a hero follows from his very nature. In Sophocles play, Oedipus the King, the playwright focuses on a man named Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who is trying to discover the truth about his past. When he was born, his parents learned from an oracle that their child would someday be the cause of their death. Believing the oracle, they abandoned their infant son with the intention of killing him. However, without their knowledge he is rescued and raised by another couple.
Oedipus fled Corinth leading him to kill a disrespectful stranger. He solved the Sphinx’s riddle which gave him kingship and the queen of Thebes. Oedipus went from death row to royalty temporarily, but he would discover a truth that would ruin his life. This idea of fate was conflicted with the Oedipus complex as believed by film producer Pasolini and author Freud who believed that Oedipus’s actions were a result of a sexual bond with his mother. They believed that this sexual bond was the underlying factor that led Oedipus to kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta.
Everybody who tries to answer the riddle is killed by the Sphinx until one day a stranger comes upon the city. The Sphinx asks him the riddle and he simply replies, "Man." The stranger solves the riddle and the Sphinx throws herself to her death. The city opens up to him, he marries the widowed queen, becomes king of Thebes, and unwillingly begins to fulfill most of the prophecy. What is the meaning of sight and blindness for an understanding of Oedipus the King?
Travelling toward Thebes, he encountered Laius, who provoked a quarrel in which Oedipus killed him. Continuing on his way, Oedipus found Thebes plagued by the Sphinx, who put a riddle to all passersby and destroyed those who could not answer. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself. In reward, he received the throne of Thebes and the hand of the widowed queen, his mother, Jocasta. They had four children: Eteocles, Polyneices, Antigone, and Ismene.
Oedipus orders him to leave, but before he leaves, Tiresias hints of an incestuous marriage, future of blindness, infamy, and wandering. Oedipus then attempts to gain advice from Jocasta. She told him to ignore prophecies because a prophet once told her that Laius, her husband, would be killed by her son. According to Jocasta, the prophecy did not come true because the baby died, and Laius himself was killed by a band of robbers.Oedipus becomes distressed by Jocasta's answers because just before he came to Thebes he killed a man who resembled Laius. To learn the truth, Oedipus sends for the only living witness to the murder, a shepherd.
The story follows Oedipus, who was predicted to murder his own father and marries his mother; as a result, his father planned to kill since he was an infant but failed due to pityness and luck. Oedipus was then adopted by the king and queen of Corinth; Oedipus then leaves Corinth when he grew up, for he believed it prevent him from the prophecy of him killing his (real)parents. Oedipus then met with his real father, King Laius of Thebes, and unknowingly killed him without even knowing that that was his real father. Oedipus then continues towards Thebes, defeated the Sphinx, crowned King of Thebes (for the old king was dead), (also unknowingly,) marries his mother and together bore four children together. Oedipus then revealed of the truth about the prophecy later in the story, when he had to find the truth to protect his city.
Sophocles, instead of killing Oedipus in the end of the novel, chose to give Oedipus a fate worse then death. Oedipus found out who he was and that he killed his father and slept with his mother. His tragic end was a result of his hamartia, hubris. His pride was what caused him to attack the carriage and kill his father, which led to him marrying his mother. He could have ignored the mere right of way argument, but the person he was inside couldn't.