Oedipus Flaws

855 Words4 Pages
Either king or common folk tragic problems affect young and old. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus the protagonist was trying to find Laius’s murder to stop the blight on the crops and the plague on the people. Oedipus was the new king of Thebes, who acquired his position by solving the riddle of the Sphinx; a terrifying monster that preyed on the people of Thebes by asking them riddles and eating them if the person fail to answer correctly. Oedipus uses prophets to try and find insight to this problem, but does not find the answers he was looking for. Oedipus in the book proves to be a tragic hero in which he was doomed from the start, anagnorisis when he realizes he went after his own tragedy, and was too morally determined to find the answer no…show more content…
In example, Oedipus was making Tiresias angry and is about to blow the top off the kettle pot. Oedipus spews out, ”I am angry enough to speak out. I understand it all listen to me. I think that you helped to plan the murder of Laius-yes, and short of actually raising your hand against him you did it. If you weren't Blind, I'd say that you alone struck him down. (Sophocles 21)” This quote is so ridiculous of an accusation that it angers the prophet into telling Oedipus that Oedipus himself is the murder. The only problem is that Oedipus thinks that he as well is now making up a fake story. Next, Oedipus has managed to round up the Shepherd who is trying not to speak. Oedipus commands,” You are a dead man if I have to ask you again. (68)” The Shepherd then answers Oedipus with the horrible truth. Oedipus was so morally determined in his conquest for the truth that he forced the people who held the answers to speak against their will by making them angry and torturing the answer out of them. In the end, Oedipus was so morally determined he revealed the horrible truth upon

More about Oedipus Flaws

Open Document