Preview

The Moral Ideas Of King Oedipus The King

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
433 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Moral Ideas Of King Oedipus The King
King Oedipus is a person who is the protagonists in literature with the title Oedipus the King. One was written and was first recorded around the 8th century BC by Homer. The literature Oedipus the King is a tragedy. This literature recalled the king Oedipus was faced with the fate worse: he has to shed his father's blood, married to his mother, and he also was cursed by his curse. The author illustrates the disadvantages of the king Oedipus many kinds; however, he has been interpolated the moral ideas of the king Oedipus in this literature – the king Oedipus is a person who ashamed to sin, be remorse for his crime, be intelligent and witty.
In an article has the importance scene that shows we know the king Oedipus ashamed sin: one day
…show more content…
After the king Oedipus was known that he is a person who killed his own father, and after Jocasta decided to take her own life by hanging herself. That led the king Oedipus into guilt. The king Oedipus tore the Jocasta’s golden brooches and smote full on his own eyeballs because he doesn't want to see anything that fear and he feel guilty. Although, he well knows that he would be not visible anymore and be suffering from the injury. This show we know that the king Oedipus has shown remorse for his crime.
The king Oedipus is an intelligent and witty person. It’s said that before Oedipus came to be the king of Thebes. He must faces with Sphinx which is an undead and eats humans. Oedipus has to answer Sphinx’s riddle if he cannot, he must die. There is a lot of people must died because they cannot answer Sphinx’s riddle but Oedipus can answer Sphinx's riddle correctly. This pointed out that the king Oedipus is a person who very incisive and witty. So, I strong agree that Oedipus is the king who has a moral high ground, but the fate has dealt king Oedipus a cruel destiny. He embarked on a great sin against his parents because he hasn’t known before the king Laius and Jocasta were his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Hubris In Oedipus The King

    • 1852 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Sophocles wrote Oedipus the King in the 5th century BCE, in contrast with the work of the Roman Ovid. The character of King Oedipus demonstrates his attitude of overconfidence from the beginning, as he speaks to the children outside his palace and introduces himself as, “I, Oedipus whom all men call the Great” (Oedipus the King 73). As a result of this hubris, he tries to defy the prophecies given by the gods, but he goes on to follow the prophecy as it was laid out and do exactly what he was most afraid of doing (Oedipus the King 83). The Oracle of Delphi gives him the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother, but his overconfidence convinces him that he can overcome this; instead of taking the advice of the prophet Teiresias, he attacks Teiresias in anger over the prophecy (Oedipus the King 80-81, 86). He embarks on an adventure towards Thebes from Corinth, and on his way, he kills an old man and marries the queen of Thebes (Oedipus the King 105), completely unaware that in doing so, he is fulfilling the prophecy. Throughout the story, his pride shines through both his actions and his attitude, as he attempts to prove that he knows more and is more powerful than the prophet, stating, “it has no strength for you because you are blind in mind and ears as well as in your eyes…You life is one long night so that you cannot hurt me or any…

    • 1852 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus Selfish Quotes

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages

    At the beginning of the play Oedipus proclaims justice for the death of Laius. Oedipus claims that he will avenge Laius’ death with the bloodshed of his killer. Being willing to fight for what is right for your people, or in this case your wife, is a more than heroic quality. Not only is he willing to fight for just but he is adamant about it. Throughout the entire play he is in search of the Laius’ killer. A hero overcomes the obstacles and brings victory out of defeat by strength of might and wisdom. Yet most of the Greek heroes had an Achilles’ heel that doomed them. Oedipus is no different. He runs away to protect those he loves, only to find he destroys those he loves as well as himself. He kills his own father with strength of might and ignores the wise warnings of Tiresias. When did he begin to realize that he was sitting on the throne of his own father, whom he had murdered? Oedipus fits the profile of a tragic hero because though he spent the whole play fighting for justice and searching for the answer he is longing for, searching for the cold killer of Laius and promising vengeance by spilling the blood of the murderer. He crumbles and becomes the fool when he finds out that his blood is the answer. In the end his people win their battle over the chaos, but he loses the fight inside himself. Oedipus realizes the metaphorical blindness that has been hindering him throughout the play and decides that the only way to make it right is to physically blind himself with Jocasta’s…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus is a man of pride and arrogance. E.R. Dodds says, “Oedipus, they point out, is proud and overconfident; he harbors unjustified suspicions against Tiresias and Creon; in one place he goes so far as to express some uncertainty about the truth of oracles” (Dodds, 39). He believes that he can control his own fate. In reality, he cannot, and ends up responsible for marrying his own mother, having children with her, and murdering his father. In the Greek…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Pride In Oedipus Rex

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The people believed at the time of Sophocles that an individual achieves his destiny as a result of his own fate. This is true in the case of Oedipus the king, whose anger; pride and blindness towards the truth bring his tragic downfall. At the start of the play, Oedipus is depicted as a confident ruler, who saved Thebes from the curse of Sphinx, furthermore, he becomes the king overnight. He declares his name gladly just as it were itself a recuperating charm: “Here I am myself— / you all know me, the world knows my fame: / I am Oedipus” (7–9). At the end, this pride becomes the curse for him (Sophocles, 1882).…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good 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
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus The King Analysis

    • 1522 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Oedipus the King follows the story of a man named Oedipus who tries to escape fate. Before the play is even started, the readers are given background information about Oedipus. When Oedipus was a baby his parents abandoned him. His parents, Laius and Jocasta, ordered a servant to leave him on a mountain to die. The servant, taking pity on Oedipus, gave Oedipus…

    • 1522 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good 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
  • 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

    The tragic hero in the story "Oedipus the King" is Oedipus himself, and every tragic hero must have a tragic flaw; the tragic flaw for Oedipus was becoming the King when he married his mother. "Wealth, power, [and] craft of statesmanship! Kingly position everywhere admired, " stated by Oedipus, where he is in the high position of the play. Going on with the play, Oedipus discovers that his "parents" (King Polybus and Queen Merope) were not actually his real parents, making him question the King and Queen, who denies everything; Oedipus, of course, does not stop there. The reversal takes place when he hears his destiny by the oracle, leaving him to make the decision to go "to a land where [Oedipus] should never see the evil sung by the oracle,"…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Oedipus the King

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages

    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
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus ascended the throne of Thebes; as to many years ago he had solved the riddle of the Sphinx, saved the city of Thebes and was welcomed as King. We see that this quality makes him an excellent ruler who anticipates his subjects’ needs. Taking up the responsibility of being a king by serving the citizens, Oedipus is adequate to the challenge, believing he can purge the land. Oedipus the King is a character that tempts fate, thinks he can change fate as a man who…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus, who was “sick at soul” eventually “tore the brooches from the robe of his dead wife and ground the pins into his eyes” (Bennet, Kerr, 3). As a result of this action, it is shown that Oedipus, filled with guilt and shame, imposes his own punishment on himself by abolishing his sense of sight. Through this, Oedipus clearly demonstrates how high the degree of remorse he feels is. On the contrary, when Creon becomes informed of the deaths of his own son and wife, he asks aloud “Is there no sword for me, to end this misery?” (Sophocles, 16). In this scene, Creon wishes to end his misery by killing himself as well, but as the story comes to a conclusion, it is speculated that Creon in fact, does not sentence himself to death. He imposes to only to be led away, to dwell for the remainder of his life in his own kingdom. It is here, that the true distinction between Oedipus and Creon shows. Oedipus, undeniably showing more remorse brings blindness and exile upon himself, compared to Creon, who only decides to reside within his home to live forever in sorrow. Unmistakably, through their self-imposed retributions, Oedipus demonstrates a higher level of remorse when compared to…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus the King

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus is a tragic hero for many reasons. First being his tragic flaw: Hubris. For example, while Teiresias, Creon, and the Choragos all try to reason with Oedipus he continues to be stubborn and ignore everything they tell him. As king, Oedipus is greatly fond of his position and extremely conceited about it. This causes him to be defensive towards Creon, instantly believing that Creon must be after his throne. This, of course, is not true as Creon is happy with his life and his “untroubled influence”, so he wouldn’t want to have the king’s responsibilities.(Fitzgerald, 31) Creon is only trying to make Oedipus see that he is not responsible for the murder. But, Oedipus is arrogant and childish so he refuses to be reasoned with or entertain the possibility that he may be wrong. But, Oedipus is also a tragic hero for reasons that he cannot control. From birth he was given a prophecy and his future was planned for him regardless of anyone’s actions. It was foretold that Oedipus would kill his father and sleep with his mother. Even though he was moved far away and raised under false parents, the prophecy was correct…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During Oedipus’s life, he tried to live a life dedicated to his family and his people. He stood by his fellow Thebans and tried to always listen and do what’s in the best interest for them. However, living a life trying to do what’s right is never easy when you are destined to commit heinous crimes. Oedipus finds out during his search that he is the killer in which he is in search of. After learning of this news, Oedipus finally starts to see the big…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays