Oedipus vows to cast out the murderer and save the city. Following Creon's recommendation, Oedipus sends for Tiresias, a blind prophet, and asks for information regarding the murder. Tiresias reluctantly declares that Oedipus himself is the murderer. Oedipus sends Tiresias away in rage, but before he leaves Tiresias says that the murderer of Laius is both the father and brother to his own children and the son of his own wife. Oedipus summons Creon and accuses him of conspiring with Tiresias against him and threatens him with death or exile.
If the killer himself confesses, he will not be punished, but will be permanently exiled from the city. On the other hand, if any citizen conceals the killer, Oedipus then says, “He will be cursed.” Oedipus continues that he will pursue the investigation “just as if Laius was my own father.” The object of his search changes as the play progresses because Oedipus does not know he is his worst enemy; he is ignorant of his fate but soon realizes the harsh reality of his life. First of all, Oedipus cannot accept things the way they are and he is very head-strong in continuing the investigation. Unknowingly he is his own enemy. As stated in the Anders Zachrisson article, “Oedipus the King: Quest for Self-Knowledge--Denial of Reality,” Tiresias, the blind seer asks Oedipus to stop the investigation, Oedipus refuses and becomes increasingly offensive.
It is a deathly thing, beyond cure; we must not let it feed upon us longer.” Dumbfounded by this statement, Oedipus questions what defilement could possibly be in his beloved kingdom. When Creon explains that the the murderer of King Laius still lives in the city, Oedipus decrees that he will do everything he can to find the murderer and bring him to justice. Oedipus does not realize that he has begun a hunt for himself, for he unknowingly killed King Laius. Afterwards, Oedipus has several witnesses come forth to try and put together the mystery that is Laius’ death. He first brings forth Teiresias, a blind clairvoyant, in hopes that he can reveal the truth.
When the blind prophet Tiresias is summoned, the king loses his temper and shows more of his true character. After relentlessly questioning Tiresias, the perpetrator of the murder is revealed. Oedipus himself is the murderer being sought. After being insulted in Corinth, Oedipus had angrily left and set out on his own. In his journey, he encountered King Laius's party enroute to the oracle.
As Christina Autiero asserts in a paper given at a conference held in Westchester - Putnam School, “Blinded by [his] passions,...Hamlet indirectly causes the death of Ophelia and his mother...revenge and Hamlet’s method of madness primarily cause his death and actions. Unfortunately, the only approach [he] felt would vindicate [his] honorable name essentially destroyed [him]” (Autiero 53). Young Hamlet believed that the only choice to redeem his father was to murdering the murderer. In doing so, however, Hamlet became mad, and struck out at any and all who crossed his path. At one point in the play, Hamlet stabs Polonius, believing him to be King Claudius.
The ghost of late King Hamlet came to Hamlet to inform him that Claudius had murdered him and demands Hamlet to execute him. Now, Hamlet is planning to avenge his deceased father by killing King Claudius, but does not know if he has committed the crime or not. Thus, having Prince Hamlet to change the scene in a play and have the actors play out late King Hamlet’s death called “The Mousetrap”. “Give me some light’ ‘Away!”(Shakespeare, pg 153, line 295). For example, this quote justifies that King Claudius had to do something with late King Hamlet’s death, because after the play Claudius cried for the lights to be turned on and then stormed out of the room.
The start of the unfortunate event is when the king is brutally murder. Cluadius seemed to bring curse a pawn everyone around him. By the murder of Hamlet's father he was determined to avenge his death. Hamlet now had to avenge the death of his father and end the incestuous acts between a twisted uncle and mother. "He kills Polonius by accident, hoping that in a blind thrust through ther arras he might turn out at last to have dispatched the King..."(Murray pg131) Some may think that Hamlet let his emotions take over his actions in avenging his fathers' death , but Ophelia and Laertes also lots a father and they too acted like out of control.
“You can not hurt me/ nor any other who beholds the light” (Sophocles, 15) Both of the characters are very vulnerable at this point, Tiresias is already physically blind and is losing power as Oedipus continues to insult him, and question his truthfulness. Tiresias knows that the options are getting narrower and that he must act and tell Oedipus the truth about the prophecy. So he reveals that Oedipus is the murder of king Laius. Oedipus has now come to the realization that he is in the wrong and that he must blame himself for his actions. The debate between Oedipus and Tiresias and the search for the murder has now ceased.
Oedipus the King In Oedipus the King a story about a rule who is destined to rule the Kingdom of Thebes and murder his own father and marry his mother, a ruler chosen to lead his people by answering a simple riddle, and unsuspectingly chosen to plague a city. Oedipus is a tragic figure; imagine that you have been told that you will kill your father and marry you mother by a divine power, the thought of that will drive a man maniacal. Which it did to Oedipus, after reading that brief introduction of the story I would think that is a point in change in the story, well not really because any reader is familiar with this story you would know what happened. It seems to have a tragic and ironic twist. That is why I believe that a point of change in the story is where Oedipus the King decides what to do with the murderer who has plagued the city of Thebes, the following has lead me to believe so.
Another example of Oedipus’ presumptuous temperament is when he immediately assumes that Creon is trying to take his power from him. Creon sends Tiresias to Oedipus to help him solve the crime of the plague, and when Tiresias reveals that Oedipus must die in order to save the people of Thebes, Oedipus assumes Creon is trying to take his throne. Creon even tells Oedipus, “…if you think crude, mindless stubbornness such a gift, you’ve lost your sense of balance” (Meyer 1438). 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.