Oedipus Rex

13 Pages 3235 Words

to reveal whole truth. After talking to Jocasta Oedipus faces that he in fact might killed the king Laius. " There was s herald leading a carriage drawn by horses and the man riding in the carriage … The driver pushed. In anger, I struck him. The old man saw it, reached for his lash and waited till I had passed. Then he struck me on the head. But he paid-oh yes he paid. … I killed him. And again that was a choice, he (Oedipus) knew that he will kill his own father, even when he killed an old man he didn't thought of possibility, that the old man might be his father. Oedipus fate was determined before he was even born, and by trying t o overcome it, he actually perfectly filing in his position in life which is a prophesy. Oedipus thought that he oversmarted the Gods, but in fact every his move he made moved him closer to prophesy becoming a reality. Oedipus Essay (Fate) Sophocles “Oedipus the King” is a tragic play which discusses the tragic discovery of Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. The story of Oedipus was well known to the athenian’s. Oedipus is the embodiement of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus’ life and to futher characterized him as a tragic man. The Sphinx posed the following riddle to all who came to obtain the rule of thebes: “What is it that walks on 4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet and has only one voice, when it walks on most feet it is the weakest?” Oedipus correctly answered “Man” and became the king of Thebes. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus. As a child man crawls on his hands and knees this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers. Also man is at his weakest as a small child. He depends...