Self Awareness Quotes In Oedipus The King

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Self-awareness is an esseential part of life; it is the conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires. Throughout the play, Oedipus the King by Sophocles, it is said that Oedipus' biggest flaw is the sin of Hubris, but in reality not knowing who he is also plays a part in his seelfishness, arrogance, and rashness. He is also very self-orientated and he can't see past his success long enough to realize his mistakes. Oedipus is the classic example of a man whose central problem is that he does not know himself because he is completely oblivious to the truth that surrounds him and subconsciously ignores his true identity for most of the play. To start off, Oedipus could not know himself when he did not know his past and where he came from. This quote states " How fair a child then I seemed ,how foul the canker...fruit(p 39)" which means Oedipus never knew he was adopted and always believed Poybus and Merope to be his biological parents. The fact that he was unaware of this fact also led to him being in denial of the prophecy later on, thus rejecting his true identity. After provoking him into telling, Teiresias says "You are the man, The accurseed polluter of this land. " (p. 11) Oedipus however doesn't believe him …show more content…

When Jocasta describes Laius' murder,it is easy to piece the story together and figure out that Oedipus was the murderer. The only reason that Oedipus does not realize the truth is because he does not want to, he is in denial and refuses to accept his identity. Likewise, when the messenger is speaking of the child brought to Polybus and Merope with bounded ankles, Oedipus should have realized that he was the child the messenger was speaking of, but he still refused to completely believe it until the herdsman was able to corroborate the messenger's

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