Thesis Statement and Outline
Thesis Statement: Sophocles, in his work Oedipus Rex, presents a plot attached to the structure of the Greek tragedy where fate, misfortune and death play a very important role.
I. Fate and Misfortune
A. The predestination of destiny and the madness of human beings for transgressing the divine laws: “The oracle, without answering the question about his parentage, prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Horrified, resolved to avert this fate, Oedipus determined never to return to Corinth”. (Greg Johnson, Thomas R. Arp, 2018, para. 2)
II. Death
B. “Because of a prophecy that their new son would kill his father, Laius and Jocasta, King and Queen of Thebes, gave their infant
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In its play, he tells the tragic story of Oedipus king of Thebes son of Laius and Jocasta, king, and queen of Thebes. These kings were warned by the oracle that his son was going to kill his father and was going to have incestuous relationships with his mother. After the time, Oedipus was born, and Laius realized that he was going to bring many problems, then ordered to kill Oedipus with one of the servants of the kingdom. Given the intrusions, the servant did not comply with the mandate and left Oedipus tied by his feet on the slopes of a mountain. Because of this, a servant of the king of Corinth meets Oedipus and King Polybus takes care of him as if he were his own son. Over time, Oedipus grows up and finds out about some rumors that his father is not really his father and decides to speak with the oracle to discover his true origin, although Polybus and Merope reassured him, he was still annoyed and traveled to consult the oracle of Delphi. The oracle tells Oedipus that he will kill his father and will have incestuous relationships with his mother. Oedipus to know his true destiny decides to flee from Corinth to prevent the prophecy from fulfilling. During his journey, he met and killed Laius, believing that the king and his companions were a band of thieves and thus, unexpectedly, the prophecy was fulfilled. Upon arriving at Thebes, Oedipus meets a sphinx. He had …show more content…
The “hero must suffer more than he deserves”, “the hero must be noble by nature, but imperfect, so that the hero must have discovered his destiny by its own action”. In the play “Oedipus Rex”, as the story narrates, Oedipus who is the hero of the story suffered more than he deserved. His parent gives him up to avoid the undesirable fate of the oracle, unleashing a countless tragedy to themselves. In the play, both the king and Oedipus tried to challenge the force of destiny and the gods, trying to escape from the misfortunes that the prophecies say will happen, which in this case were incest and death. As the ancient Greek culture shows, it is inevitable to try to change the destiny, since, as it is the product of the decisions of the gods. In this tragedy, Sophocles tries to make aa statement by clarifying that no one can escape from its destiny. As visible as it is, it is proven that the human being does whatever it takes to avoid pain, total abandonment, human misery, sacrifice, misfortune, and death. Oedipus committed an act of pride (hubris) which in a Greek culture is consider a sin. In Greek tragedy, Hubris is known as "an excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis”. It was believed that an act of pride or as its known “Hubris”, the person who committed it had to paid with death or sublimation. As we know by the story, the hubris sin
One day, Oedipus went to the Oracle of Delphi and found out that he was destined to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus tried to escape his fate by running away from Corinth, leaving who he thought were his real parents. However, he ended up running right into his real father. He saw a group of people riding a chariot at the crossroads and assumed that they were thieves. Laois happened to be one of them, and Oedipus killed him not knowing that he was his real dad. This is important since Oedipus fulfilled part of the prophecy. Oedipus remembered about his encounter with the chariot near the end of the play and said, “But he more than paid for it and soon was struck by the scepter from this very hand, lying on his back, at once thrown out of the car. I killed them all” (Sophocles, 39). Quite soon, he also won the throne of Thebes by answering the riddle of the Sphinx and unknowingly married Iocaste, his real mother.
Many people go through events throughout their life that have a disastrous outcome. In Sophocles’ book, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is not able to change his fate, whereas in Shakespeare’s book, Julius Caesar, Brutus’s fate is determined by his actions. The many things that are included in the outcome of Oedipus’ and Caesar’s fate include the unities in how the tragedy happens, the characteristics of the men, the relationship between the gods and humans in both books, and also the importance of knowledge. All of these characteristics of a tragedy are included in the calamities these men face. In Oedipus Rex, because Oedipus is ultimately powerless to change his catastrophe, the idea of fate is emphasized significantly throughout the tragedy; however,
Oedipus is the king of Thebes and unknown to him he is married to his mother Jocasta queen of Thebes. He does not realize that many years ago he had killed his real father without knowing it. Oedipus is seen as god like to the people of Thebes because it was him who solved the sphinxes riddles. In the play he is accused by Teiresias of killing the king and Oedipus blames his brother in law and kreon of trying to over throw him. Then his wife Jocasta comes into the scene and tells a story of how the king was killed. It is then that Oedipus learns of his childhood and becomes more suspicious then ever. He then calls a shepherd and a messenger to help answer questions. The people tell him to stop asking about the death because he may not like the answer but Oedipus makes the ultimate sacrifice and continues to
Oedipus the King is a tragedy that displays irony throughout the play. In the play, King Laius and his wife Jocasta learn that in the prophecy their newborn son, Oedipus, will kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent the prophecy from occurring, they decide to bind and tie his ankles and then abandoned him. When Oedipus grew up, he eventually learned about this prophecy and decided to leave his parents. What he did not realize was that the parents who raised him were not his biological parents. On his voyage to Thebes, Oedipus ended up in a chariot accident
As a precursor to the story, King Laius of Thebes was told that he would one day die at the hands of his son. In an attempt to ensure this fate would not come true, Laius ordered that his and his wife, Jocasta’s firstborn child’s feet be pinned together and the child be abandoned on a mountain. Behind Laius’ back, the child was saved and brought to Polybus, king of Corinth, whose childless wife, Merope, took the child as her own, naming him Oedipus. Another fate enters into the story when the Delphic oracle tells Oedipus that he would one day kill his father and marry his mother. Believing the oracle was referring to Polybus and Merope, Oedipus vowed to never to return to Crointh and instead traveled to Thebes.
In the play, “Oedipus Rex”, many ironies took place, as well as fate playing a huge part in the story. “Oedipus Rex” is a story about a man that tries to overcome adversity but cannot escape his prophecy. His parents took him to a hillside as an infant, sliced his Achilles tendons and left him there. A shepherd soon came to his rescue. “King and Queen of Thebes, gave their infant to a shepherd in with orders that he be left on the side of the mountainside to die” (Johnson 1205). As he grew older and much wiser, he went to see the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle informed him that his destiny was to kill his father and marry his mother. The main ironies in the play are the killing of Oedipus’s biological father, the odd relationship with his mother, and the inability of Oedipus to avoid his fate.
Oedipus was the King of Thebes who is investigating to find the murder of their friend Lais. The citizens were begging Oedipus to lift the plague and save their city Thebes. Oedipus sent Creon out to try to figure out some deals on the murder of Lais, but little did Oedipus know that he himself killed Lais. If they find the man who murdered Lais this will end the plague. Oedipus then comes to find out that he is one of the suspects of Lais murder. When Oedipus was a young boy, that he is destined to kill his father and marry his own mother Oedipus’s later find out that his father is Lais. His real parents abandoned him, so the shepherd gave Oedipus to Lais and Jocasta. Oedipus then realizes he was the person to kill his father Lais. He also
As he searched out his past, Oedipus met his downfall, unable to accept how the prophecy came true in the end. This prophecy stated that Laius, the king of Thebes, would have a son who would kill his own father and marry his own mother. When Oedipus realized that he had killed his father, Laius, and married his mother, Jocasta, he created the consequences of his actions. The fatal flaw that orchestrated his downfall was hubris, which then resulted in being brash and stubborn. Oedipus was prideful of being Thebes’s savior and the fact that he was portrayed as a good king that could provide the people’s needs. However, when he found out that he had fulfilled the prophecy, he felt that he was unworthy of his position and did not deserve to
When Oedipus was born, he was left on a mountainside to die. The reason his parents did this was, an oracle predicted that he will grow up to be the murderer of his father the King. Oedipus parents did not kill him like they told to, instead Oedipus was found by a Sheppard and taken to the nearby city of Corinth. This is where Oedipus was adopted as the son of the King and Queen. Many years later, Oedipus seeks counsel from the same oracle that predicted his fate. The oracle does not tell him the identity of his true parents, instead tells him that he will kill his biological father and marry his birth mother. To ovoid this prophecy, Oedipus ran away from Corinth back to Thebes. Oedipus reaches a place where three roads meet. He comes across a chariot that was carrying King Laius. At the time he did not know that this man was his father and the King of Thebes. They begin to fight over who has the right to go first, and in self defense Oedipus kills King Laius; unknowingly fulfilling part of the prophecy. After unknowingly killing the King, Oedipus continues on his journey toward Thebes. When he got to the there the city in great distress. He also learned that a monster called the Sphinx was terrorizing the Thebans by devouring them when they failed to answer its riddle correctly. Oedipus not only defeated the Sphinx, which killed itself in rage, but won the throne of the dead king and the hand in marriage of the
Oedipus the King is a tale that starts out with the city of Thebes suffering from a drastic plague and their king, Oedipus wants to find out why. Creon is sent to find the reason why the plague is occurring, and sends Tiresias to tell Oedipus the oracle. The oracle says that the murderer of Laius must be found and punished. This caused Oedipus to proclaim that he would do everything so that he could to find the murderer. Tiresias says that the murderer is Oedipus, but Oedipus is quick to disagree. Oedipus came to the towns of Thebes because of a prophecy that was given to him. He was told that he was to kill his father and even sleep with his own mother. Once the story comes to an end, the
Oedipus the King is Sophocles’ Greek tragedy about a hero’s demise. Unknowingly born to King Laius and his wife Jocasta, the play entails a self-fulfilling prophecy and the unravelling of the male protagonist. Originally a murder mystery, Oedipus the King gradually develops into a journey of self-discovery. The play Oedipus the King has a major reoccurring theme of the Divine and fate, and this is evident through the worship of the Greek gods, particularly Apollo, as well as the importance of the oracle’s prophecies.
In Greek tragedy, it is said that as individuals we fail because of our actions. However, the gods play a major role in determining an individual’s fate. The play, Oedipus The King, is about an orphan who runs away from his adoptive parent’s home.
In Sophocles tragic Greek story of Oedipus the King, the author wanted to prove to the people of Greece that the Greek gods are all powerful and that one’s fate is established in advance and you cannot change what is already set in stone. Sophocles shows this by telling the readers that this story is about people who try to avoid their fate and shows that it doesn’t do any good because eventually when it comes down to it, what the oracles predict ended up being the truth. In this story there are a lot of situations where people try to avoid their fate. The play is about a man named Oedipus who is ill fated to what was predicted by the Oracle at Delphi before he was even born. Oedipus is informed of his fate and right away he tries to hinder it from happening, just like his father and mother tried to do.
Prior to Oedipus’s birth, it was prophesied that Oedipus would end up killing his father and marrying his mother. Due to this, Oedipus was abandoned at birth and raised by the King and Queen of Corinth. As he eventually discovered, via a drunken man, that he was not a birth son of theirs, he sought the guidance of the Delphi Oracle to confirm this discovery. In frustration of this prophecy manifesting itself, Oedipus ends up killing an old man, who happened to be his father, King Laius. The death of his father led to the imposition of a plague in Thebes delivered by Apollo, and in attempts to follow proper leadership, Oedipus is determined to apprehend the murderer and remove the plague from Thebes. After Teiresias blamed Oedipus for the
Oedipus is a boy who was left on the mountains to die by his own parents, the King and Queen of Thebes, due to a tragic prophecy told by the Oracles of Delphi. The prophecy declares that the boy would be destined to murder his father, king Louis of Thebes and then incest with Louis’s wife, Jocasta, Oedipus mother. After being abandoned on the mountain by his wicked parents, a shepherd found this little child and takes him to the King and Queen. King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth decided that since they don't have a child of their own, it would