Preview

Reaction to Oedipus the King

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
271 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Reaction to Oedipus the King
Reaction to Oedipus the King
In Greek mythology, humans are actors to the gods and only show a role in the play of life .The human condition is stated as the way humans act, react and respond to changes in life. The play is shaped through the effects of fate and how knowing one’s future can control a person’s way of life. Oedipus relates to the human condition through humanity’s fear of fate, how humans are irrational to one another and people kind’s mental blindness.
The entire play is a result of fate, moreover how fate, especially when negative, can show that humans are cowards. Oedipus could have decided to stay in Corinth and faced his destiny even though it would have lead to persecution by the people. However, Oedipus flees, demonstrating again that when humans see what the future holds for them, they will take every precaution necessary to prevent a negative outcome.
Humanity’s extreme struggle to survive, ability to come to radical conclusions and humankind’s desire to be informed only when the evidence suits them can be found within the play. Oedipus Rex allows a person to witness the result of knowing one’s destiny and strength of one’s character. That humans act irrational towards one another as well as their ability to make drastic decisions. In the end, Oedipus Rex portrays human blindness and the devastating effects it has not only on oneself but also everyone. The only thing left is the mystery of wherever or not humans will be able to remove the crust of selfishness from their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    A person of noble birth with heroic or potentially heroic qualities, defines a tragic hero. A young man known by the name Oedipus, died a tragic hero. Throughout his life, he was faced with situations that he just could not surpass which led to his gruesome destiny. He was born into a world where the future held nothing but lies and despair.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus Rex Analisys

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In "Oedipus Rex", Sophocles portraits one of the most intriguing and fascinating traits of the human nature: the search for truth regarding who we are and the realization of the paths reserved by our future fate.…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus Rex is full of people searching for justice. Throughout the play Oedipus acts upon what he believes is justice.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The entire story of Oedipus is built around a central ironic theme. The king's world is one full of ironies, most of which are cruel. His life begins in exile, because his father fears a prophecy, one in which his son would kill him and marry his wife. It is this…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sophocles intertwines the contrasting ideas of fate and free will throughout Oedipus the King, and conclusively leaves it to the audience to determine the reason for the tragedy that occurs in the story. The Oracle informs Oedipus of his destined future, which is to eventually shed his own father’s blood and marry, as well as conceive children with, his mother. As the story plays out, Oedipus comes to the realization that he has indeed fulfilled the prophecy given to him. While he has an honor to uphold as King of Thebes, he disgraces his people with his actions of murder and incest. Ultimately, Oedipus’ character flaws are responsible for the disaster that takes place in the story, including his lack of self-control and anger, impulsive decision to marry Jocasta, and self admittance of fulfilling his destiny.…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Oedipus the King” is a drama that portrays misfortune that dwells among mankind. The tragic sequence of events first starts with the birth of Oedipus. His biological parents are stricken with grief when they discover a secret that causes them to banish their son from the city of Thebes. Little did they know that, despite their actions, fate would still play out which would, in turn, cause the society of Thebes to be stricken by the plague. Although many people suffered from the unfortunate destiny of Oedipus, perhaps the person that suffered the most was Oedipus himself. Oedipus endured an unforgiving reality check after being blindsided by the current state of his life.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The thing that struck me about Oedipus was the changing emotions throughout the story. At the beginning of the story the overwhelming emotion is desolation and panic as the kingdom seems to be dyeing this turns to hope when they are provided with what seems to be a cure. They must find Laius's murderer to restore favor in the gods eyes. What follows is a sense of urgency as they try to right the wrong before all is lost. This pressure leads Oedipus to make some rash accusations against Tiresias and Creon which results in an angry dispute. However, after Jocasta calms the argument, the feeling of urgency is renewed as the wait for the shepard who holds the answer to not only who the murderer is but also who Oedipus' parents were. Once everything…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A tragic hero is defined as “a [great] man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake” (“Aristotle”, n.d.). Therefore, a tragic hero has some sort of tragedy that surrounds their life. A tragic hero also makes dramas more interesting and makes readers think. Dramas sometimes either exemplify or refute Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. Oedipus by Sophocles exemplifies Aristotle’s definition in four different aspects. The first aspect involves both Oedipus’ ignorance and knowledge of his life situations, the second involves his hamartia, the third involves the actual plot itself, and the fourth involves the characterization of…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I saw Oedipus with likeable motives, but his choices purged my emotions for Oedipus. He craves knowledge until he is so disgusted that he sees Jocasta’s suicide and gouges out his own eyes. In the beginning, Oedipus was full of potential but destined to commit evil. The play spirals downwards as Oedipus learns more of his history. Oedipus the King is a moving tragedy. The play follows all concepts written in The Poetics concerning tragedy. The audience is brought to a holistic catharsis, a spiritual revelation, that will help he/she be honorable, more useful and responsible citizens. Like the sudden flip of the face-down card, the audience abruptly disregard their hope for Oedipus realizing his doomed…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Oedipus Rex

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The premise of the play is how Oedipus’s decisions unknowingly lead to his fate. Oedipus was free to make his own decisions, and his decisions tied in with his fate. Oedipus did not know that all his decisions would lead to the killing of his father and the marrying of his mother. Oedipus was a very stubborn and curious person; he forced the servant of Laios and also Teiresias to tell him the truth about his past, even though neither one wanted him to know the truth. The servant stated, “… if I speak the truth, I am worse than dead” (p.165). Both warned Oedipus that he did not want to…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The play Oedipus the King, translated by Robert Fagles, is a story of drama and tragedy. Oedipus’ pride and morals cause him to take fate into his own hands and it ends up blowing up in his face. He was abandoned as a baby and was raised by the king and queen of Corinth. When he reached manhood, he was informed by an oracle that he would one day kill his father and marry his mother. He left Corinth forever and along his way he came to cart carrying his real father. Out of rage, he killed everyone including his father. In Thebes, he defeated the Sphinx. His reward was kingship and the dead king’s wife, his mother. Oedipus tried to change his future but eventually fate caught up with him.…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main concentration of Oedipus was preventing his downfall in the story, but due to his inner blindness and the rest of his character flaws he was unsuccessful in this journey, which is the reason that Oedipus was a static character throughout the whole story. He has various flaws, which always started multiple conflicts in the story, all of which gradually directed him to his downfall in the plot of the play. All of the shortcomings of Oedipus are the reason for his quick, horrific downfall from his kingliness into poor, ever-wandering blind man he has become by the conclusion of the story.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Oedipus the king

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Oedipus the King” was a tale depicting the human experience; each human has a great victory, shortly accompanied by a great demise; the rollercoaster of life. Oedipus had his great success soon become the reason for his fall. With Oedipus’ deadly flaw being ‘hubris’; his excessive pride led him to believe he was on the level of ‘gods’. Once he paraded that he was invulnerable (untouchable by even the gods), his fall would be all the more tragic. Throughout the tale however, Oedipus uses many rhetorical devices towards all his subjects without even recognizing.…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Around the mid 400’s B.C.E Sophocles, an ancient Greek philosopher, wrote a radically new play that discussed many philosophical topics. The contrast of fate and free will appears many times and is a key theme in his play Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles weighs in on his opinions on this topic. Sophocles utilizes fate as a key component of his play Oedipus rex to develop Oedipus and influence the reader to sympathize with him. With the cruel and inevitable fate of Oedipus, Sophocles can make Oedipus, a ruler and king more relatable to the reader. By humanizing Oedipus with sympathy the message of the play changes from an unlucky king who was told a horrible prophecy to how fate the ultimate deciding factor in future, not choices, nor…

    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus the King Essay

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sight and Blindness has many different meanings throughout the world. The concept of blindness can be seen as the literal inability to look at the world and it is also perceived as being blind to a situation or event that is obvious. The Sophocles Tragedy, Oedipus the King, portrays both of the viewpoints of sight and blindness. The characters in Sophocles’ work live a hectic, ever-changing, life with twists of fate.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays