Family secrets are generally bad, but if they were known could people possibly make different choices in life? In the story of Oedipus the King, Oedipus’ entire life is build around so-called “family secrets”. In the end of his misguided choices which result from his lack of knowledge of his heritage lead to the development of his character and his tragic fall. The development of Oedipus’ character is essentially lead by a family secret. A secret can misguide our lives; it can mix up our identities and mold them into something we would not normally be. Also this clouds his mind and makes it difficult to make clear choices. [Evan Imber-Black pg2] Oedipus’ character is filled with fear and pride. The fear of Oedipus is fuelled by the frightening possibility of the prophecy being fulfilled. This makes him feel like the only option is to run away from his problems. After running, Oedipus is left feeling like he has forgotten his problems behind him and there is nothing that will be able to stop him so his pride starts to swell. Oedipus’ pride is starting to grow is because he has become a great king and feels like the prophecy is long gone. Problems within the city begin to arise at Oedipus’ feet he is lost in what actions he should take because he is blind to the truth, because he is the problem. When Oedipus seeks help through is pride he lashes out at Tiresias because in Oedipus’ mind the prophecy has been avoided. In the end Oedipus’ fear and pride could have been minor or not at all if he had known the truth about his heritage. The beginning of Oedipus’ tragic fall starts before he has even risen to be a king because at birth Oedipus’ origin is being hid from him, a situation which in time creates the reason for his choices. Oedipus is only running from the truth, the only truth he knows, the prophecy of killing his father and marring his mother. If Oedipus at the beginning was told who his real father is Oedipus would have possibly stayed in Corinth and not been running from his problems in the first place. Also if Oedipus would have not been running away from his problems he would not have been traveling and came across the crossroads where Oedipus kills his father.
Not knowing or knowing a deep family secret can affect the choices we make. Fear, dimidiation, and pride can form from not knowing certain pieces of information and mislead our character. [Evan Imber-Black pg2] Oedipus from the beginning was misleading, in this he makes his own mistakes which lead to his tragic fall. When Oedipus makes the choice to run, he believes he is making the right decision based on the information he knows to be the truth. If the truth was known from the beginning Oedipus would have gone down a different path and not been in the dark his entire life.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Oedipus did not know his real parents. The King of Corinth was his foster dad. The king gave him the name Oedipus, because…
- 1492 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
According to Adade-Yeboah, Ahenkora, and Amankwah (2012), “Tragedy is of action and not character as Aristotle puts it” (p. 10). Therefore, Oedipus’ tragedy deals with his ignorance and not his character. Oedipus is ignorant in the fact that he does not realize he is committing patricide or incest (Adade-Yeboah et al., 2012, p. 11). Oedipus grows up knowing two opposite people that he thought were his parents, which leads to him killing his biological father and marrying his biological mother. Oedipus then goes on to search for his biological father’s killer and soon realizes that it was he himself who committed the atrocious acts toward his family. He came to this realization after it was revealed to him by an oracle. Originally, Oedipus believes that the man he originally kills is only just a shepherd, when in return it is his biological father. According to Greenburg (2012), “Oedipus has been told, and has come to believe, that at the end of his life and in death he will have the power to protect the city that has taken him and buried him” (p. 52). Oedipus maintains the belief that things will always be the way he knew them to be and he would be in charge of the city he knew and loved. He maintains this belief until an oracle reveals his misfortune. At first, Oedipus and his wife (biological mother) refuse to believe that what they were told is true. According to…
- 1506 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (rpt. in James P. Place, Literature: A reader for Freshman Composition II, 1st ed. [Boston: Pearson, 2011] 122-168), the oracles had prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Oedipus does not want to do the things that Apollo predicted; he is no puppet, but indeed the controller of his own fate. Oedipus was unwilling to have his fate come true; he was frightened that he would kill his adopted parents. He believes they were his real parents, therefore he left to Thebes. The decision he made was based on the stories he heard. This led to Oedipus’s own downfall.…
- 456 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
This instantly places him right on top and boosts him up to fulfill the Kings position. His intuitive instincts and drive to put together his life signified him as a man always on a hunt. These qualities where huge attributes to his life however, he also had many negative traits which would end him. He was a man with a huge temper which leads right to his downfall. Since his temper is what ultimately killed his father, it was obvious that it would not stop there. His lack of emotion and sensitivity to these killing sprees was a sign of a broken man unwilling to wear his heart of his sleeve. A man of pride. This follows even more problems for Oedipus as time continues. He refuses to listen to Teiresias, the blind seer of Thebes. He is informed about his future and is taking back by all that makes sense to him now. He is left alone to figure out what to do next. Instead of handling the situation calmly and effectively, he goes out on an rampage and seeks to kill his wife/mother for not telling him to the truth. Once he arrives, he instantly finds her hung by her own hair. This forces him to completely lose his right state of mind and punishes himself by gauging his…
- 471 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Pride like that of Oedipus had been the downfall of many great leaders. Oedipus is blinded by his arrogance and won’t accept the fact that he can’t avoid his fate. His pride first affects him when he is told about what his fate has in-store for him. Oedipus explains to Jocasta that he was told that he “was fated to to lie with my [his] mother and show to daylight an accursed breed which men would not endure, and I [he] was doomed to be murderer of the father that begot me [him]. When I heard this I fled” (Sophocles 45, 1.792-4). Ironically the pride which caused him to attempt to avoid his fate, put him on a path to it. On his trip away from Corinth, he unknowingly met with his father, King Laius. When Oedipus tells Jocasta of his encounter he says that he met with a carriage at an intersection and they fought over the right of way. He also mentions one man (King Laius) struck him and said that:…
- 1115 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Although ruling with an iron ego, Oedipus has the admirable qualities that a leader of any place would and should possess; he has a deep devotion to the Theban population, “whose fame all men acknowledge” (Sophocles, 8). At the outset of the play, Oedipus’ intentions were honorable; he was determined to find Laius’ murderer and went to such lengths to end the plague on his people. His intentions were there and good. As a man of such noble status, he was dedicated to his people. Despite his dedication and apparent likability, it is his immense pride that disallows him from seeing his true nature: a hot-tempered, proud and cocky individual who ends up, in a paradox, blind as he “sees” the truth that he murdered his own father and has married and procreated with his mother, however unaware of that fact he was. Even in seeing his own truth, no pun intended, Oedipus begs for exile as a way to escape his cursed family; he asks his brother-in-law Creon to protect his daughters/half-sisters Antigone and Ismene in a move of selflessness counteracting his normally proud…
- 1447 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
In the polis of Thebes, Oedipus was the not only the king but he was also the hero of the community. The security and health of the community depended on him and he was expected to meet every urgent crisis with a plausible solution. He was celebrated for acting decisively and making decisions and then acting on them. With all his past accomplishments and achievements, Oedipus developed a strong sense of confidence, which fueled his over inflated ego. Unfortunately, when circumstances did not turn out in his favor, such as in his conflict with Tiresias the blind prophet, Oedipus became rigid and refused to see the problem on any one else’s terms except his own. Oedipus only wanted things to go the way he thought they should go. Whatever stood in his way he tried to overcome publicly and without any compromise from the opposing party, which was illustrated in his argument in front of the palace with Creon over the murder of the former King Laius. Ultimately his attitude of confidence with no compromises contributed to his disastrous and sad end. In most cases, intelligence and diligence are valuable traits to possess, but for Oedipus they contributed to his eventual downfall. Oedipus was known for being extremely intelligent and was very talented at solving riddles. To earn the right to be King of Thebes, Oedipus solved a riddle, which as a result…
- 502 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex revolves around the story of Oedipus, who now is King of Thebes, searching for the murderer of the past king. The tragedy is not so much that Oedipus is the murderer and committing incest with his mother. After all, he was fated to do so, and Oedipus commits these crimes unknowingly. The real tragedy of Oedipus is his trying to defy his destiny and compounding the troubles with his pride. Oedipus has the chance to stop the search for the murderer before the investigation starts. Even blind Teiresias, who tells Oedipus that he is the guilty party, wants Oedipus to stop although Teiresias can see the outcome and knows Oedipus' destiny. It is Oedipus' pride that, in telling the members of his court that he will search for the murderer, leads him down the ever narrowing path to the truth and his pride that will not allow him to stop the search.…
- 725 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Oedipus was one of the reasons for death in his family. The prophet Tiresias said that one day Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother one day. And because of this his parents sent him to die. But he still lived and fulfilled the prophecy without anyone even himself knowing at the time. Once the shepherd came, he was able to create the picture for Oedipus and he knew he was the one who killed his father. He was blinded to the truth all this time by the amount of pride he had within him. Jocasta his wife killed herself because she found out that she had married his son and even had kids with him. And because of this Oedipus kills himself. Sophocles once said, “…He digs them down the sockets of his eyes, crying “you’ll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused!”(237) this reveals that Oedipus realizes what he has done and wants to end all the suffering going on. Oedipus once said, “It’s mine alone, my destiny-I am Oedipus!” This shows who he really is now and what he was destined to become.…
- 560 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Oedipus starts the cause of his own grief by going to the oracle in out of curiosity. When the oracle tells him he is destined to sleep with his mother and kill his father, he attempts to avoid this fate by leaving Corinth. Oedipus heads to Thebes, he ends up killing this real father, Laius. Thinking nothing of it he continues on his path to sorrow. Later becoming King of Thebes by solving the sphinx, he completes the fate of the oracle without knowing by marring Joacasta, Laius wife, and his real mother. Oedipus never knew of this outcome till the end, and it really took full effect on him because he knows he brought it upon himself. His intentions were not bad, but he knows he could have done something different to make the outcome better. He drowns in his own grief and knows he has to punish himself. Sometimes are actions seem to be what is right at the time, but eventually cause a major difference in our life and can cause grief upon us forever.…
- 506 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Scene: In front of Oedipus' palace in Thebes. To the right is an altar where a…
- 5727 Words
- 23 Pages
Good Essays -
One of the many aspects that Oedipus failed to perceive were the clues of his own past that he refused to analyze. Oedipus learned that Lauis was traveling with four men and was killed by one, yet he never connected the fact that he knew he killed a man of the same description. These foresights to his own identity would’ve been vital to his potential wellness, but his passion overtook reason as he failed to observe all possibilities. Not only did Tiresias give Oedipus the clues to solve his riddle, but says: “Oh yes, detected in his very heart of home: his children’s father and their brother, son and husband to his mother, bed rival to his father and assassin.” Tiresias plainly tells Oedipus his identity, and how he has sinned by marrying his mother and killing his father. However, Oedipus decides to ignore this more than plain explanation and forget about it, being determined to put the blame on Creon out of his passionate rage.…
- 566 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Sophocles is one of the best and most well-known ancient Greek tragedians. He influenced the development of drama especially by adding a third character and thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. Even though he wrote 123 plays, he is mostly famous for his three plays concerning Oedipus and Antigone: these are often known as the Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle. One of these plays is “Oedipus the King”, which will be discussed throughout this essay. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus learns, as the story unfolds, that he committed both patricide and incest. Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony emphasizes how limited human understanding is and the pain and suffering that is created due to misunderstandings. As time progresses, he slowly and powerlessly watches his world and everything he has known crumble before him. Now, the real question is whether or not he bears full responsibility for what is happening and for his past acts. In my opinion, Oedipus is indeed responsible to a great extent for his fate.…
- 1315 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Oedipus was shaded to the truth of his own life. Oedipus didn’t have any idea that his parents were who they turned out to be, Laius and Jocasta. He was oblivious to everything so much that when he did finally hear the truth, he would get angry at anyone who proposed the facts to him. As the story progressed, Oedipus was unprotected from the truth. He realized he was the person causing horrible periods in Thebes. He also recognized that he killed his own dad and married his mom.…
- 622 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
It is understandable that he did not do a full background check on himself when he started to put the pieces together but if he would have just caught on a little sooner then maybe he could have tried to put the blame on someone else so that he could continue to be king or leave the city before anyone else noticed, none of this would have happened. He damned the person that killed Laios, essentially damning himself. He married the woman that gave birth to him and had children with her, ruining his life along with his children’s, and ultimately resulting in the death of Iocaste. If he knew himself and who he truly was, he would have never married his mother or damned the person that killed the king. Oedipus chose to believe that he was not the person that killed the king even after all the signs pointed to him. If he would have just stopped and looked at the bigger picture, then he would have realized that everything he did and everything leading up until that point showed who he truly…
- 840 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays