Oedipus, the main character in “Oedipus, the King” has hamartia and frailty that lead to his downfall. Oedipus’s imperfect character traits: pride (hubris), stubbornness, and disrespect precipitate his tragic fate and demise.
Oedipus, King of Thebes, is an imperfect protagonist in Sophocles’ “Oedipus, the King.” He is an imperfect human being who makes mistakes in his life. His mistakes, however, are very tragic and exceed what he deserves. He is ignorant about his true identity and does not accept his gods’ prophecy for him. He tries to avoid his gods’ horrendous fate in his life and causes blasphemy, patricide, and incest unintentionally and unknowingly. His first mistake is to try to ignore the rumors his adopted parents are not his real parents. He runs away from Corinth to avoid his prophesied destiny believing his foster parents are safe away from him. As fate has it, he unknowingly kills his real father at a crossroad due to his bad temper, rash anger, and self defense. Unfortunately, he fulfills his birth prophesy, The Oracle of Delphi: “To his beloved children, he’ll be shown / a father who is also brother; to the one / who bore him, son and husband; to his father / his seed-fellow and killer” (lines 462-465)
Oedipus, by his hasty actions, and decisions commits terrible sins: kills his father, commits incest, and disobeys the gods. His fate continues his path as he becomes king of Thebes. He deciphers the monstrous Sphinx’s riddle by correctly answering: It is man, who crawls as a baby, walks in his adulthood, and uses a cane at an old age. He gains power over the people of Thebes. He considers himself powerful and mighty above all. He demonstrates his true hubris and ego character in line 8: “I, Oedipus, a n...
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...ways looks to the future, not the past, cannot see the truth until after it has become plain to everyone else” (1424). Walton concludes: “we pity Oedipus, as Freud tells us, because, at some level, his fate could be our own” (1424). Oedipus appears as he has everything a man could want; but, by seeking the truth, he loses everything. Fate is unfair: it shows up unexpectedly were least expected.
Works Cited
Sophocles. “Oedipus, the King.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading And Writing: Ed. Edgar v. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 5th Compact ed. Boston: Longman, 2012. 969-1004. Print
Walton, J. Michael. “Oedipus, the King (Oedipus Tyrannus) Play by Sophocles, 430 BC.” Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. 3rd ed. Vol. 2: Works. Detroit: St. James Press, 2003. 1423-1424. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Robert Fagles. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack et al. 6th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1992.
Sophocles. (1991). Oedipus the King in Sophocles I. (G. David, Trans.) Chicago:University of Chicago Press.
A son who kills his own father, marries his own mother, and is both the father and brother of his mother’s children. Oedipus, meaning “swollen foot”, grows up with adopted parents and a brooding prophecy on his heels. The frightful tale of Oedipus and his indescribable fate play out in the Greek theatrical production of Oedipus Rex. The horrible destiny for Oedipus is inevitable due to the unfavorable traits given to him by the author, Sophocles. Throughout Oedipus Rex, Sophocles masterfully weaves Oedipus’ fatal traits of naiveté, arrogance, and curiosity into the intriguing plot.
Oedipus is the son of the king and queen of Thebes. A prophet tells the king and queen that his son will kill him. This causes the king and queen to become worried of the possibilities so they decide to kill their son in order to prevent the predictions of the prophet from becoming true. However, Oedipus did not die and instead was rescued and eventually adopted. As time progresses Oedipus is told that he will kill his father and this frightens Oedipus so he decides to get as far as possible from his parents. During Oedipus’s journey he stumbles upon his biological father and he was unable to control his anger so he killed his father. As time goes on he eventually marries the queen of Thebes also known as his mom. He found out that her husband was killed a long time ago so Oedipus decided to investigate. A prophet tells Oedipus that he was the one that killed the king who was his father. Oedipus is angered and is told to stop trying to solve the mystery. Oedipus eventually discovers that what the prophet told him was true and is angered. He eventually meets his end. In this case Oedipus’s biggest flaw is his anger. His anger eventually causes him to face defeat. “Who would not feel his temper rise at words like these with which you shame our city” (Sophocles 1572). The quote comes directly from a conversation he was having with the prophet that told him he was
In the story, “Oedipus the King” before Oedipus became king of Thebes, he made choices that led to events that defined his fate. The first event emerged when Oedipus heard a drunken man saying that the ones who cared for Oedipus at Corinth were not his biological parents. The terrible news is what set forth the very first steps towards the beginning of the events that led to his fate. Oedipus confused and interested in the truth, went on to speak with God. However, the God did not answer what Oedipus questioned and instead had his fate foretold. “The god dismissed my question without reply; he spoke of other things. Some were clear, full of wretchedness, dreadful, unbearable: As, that I should lie with my own mother, breed children from all men would turn their eyes; and that I should be my father’s murderer,” (Gioia, 2010). Oedipus still unfamiliar, of who his parents were, chose to flee from home in attempt to prevent the God’s statement of his fate from coming true. Oedipus’ choice of fleeing the country was perhaps a bad decision. It was what led him to experience the first event of his fate. As Oedipus goes his...
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. By Michael Meyer. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 1125-166. Print.
Oedipus began Oedipus Rex as a king, only to end the tale as a blinded beggar. Oedipus' fall from his kingly status was not by accident or because of some other person. Oedipus is the only one that can be blamed for his misfortune. Oedipus' character traits are shown most clearly during his spiraling downfall, thinking he is "a simple man, who knows nothing", yet knowing more than he realizes by the end of the story.
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 1365- 1433
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Twelfth Edition. New York: Pearson, 2013. 1205-1244.
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 1902.
The ancient Greeks were fond believers of Fate. Fate, defined according to Webster’s, is “the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as the do.” The Greeks take on Fate was slightly modified. They believed that the gods determined Fate: “…fate, to which in a mysterious way the gods themselves were subject, was an impersonal force decreeing ultimate things only, and unconcerned with day by day affairs.” It was thought that these gods worked in subtle ways; this accounts for character flaws (called harmatia in Greek). Ancient Greeks thought the gods would alter a person’s character, in order for that person to suffer (or gain from) the appropriate outcome. Such was the case in Oedipus’s story.
Through the character of Oedipus, Sophocles shows the futility and consequences of defying the divine order. Oedipus served Thebes as a great ruler, loved by his subjects; but it is his one tragic flaw, hubris, which dooms his existence, regardless of the character attributes that make him such a beloved king.
Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. By Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. 73-94. Print.
Sophocles demonstrates in the play Oedipus the King that a human being, not a God, ultimately determines destiny. That is, people get what they deserve. In this play, one poorly-made judgment results in tragic and inescapable density. Oedipus fights and kills Laius without knowing Laius is his father. Then, Oedipus's pitiless murdering causes several subsequent tragedies such as the incestuous marriage of Oedipus gets into the flight with Laius. However, Oedipus's characteristics after Laius's death imply that Oedipus could avoid the fight as well as the murder of his father, but did not. Ultimately, Oedipus gets what he deserves due to his own characteristics that lead him to murder Laius: impatience, delusion, and arrogance.
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.