Oedipus the King Oedipus the Term Paper

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Oedipus, however, does show a great deal of arrogance as a character in the actual play, no matter how much the reader or viewer may feel pity and horror at his fate. Sophocles deliberately chooses to show first Oedipus, not as an innocent, abandoned baby with an injured foot, which is the first sight a reader might have of Oedipus and is the beginning of the actual myth. Instead, the ancient Greek playwright shows Oedipus first to the audience as an arrogant king. Oedipus says that he will discover the reason for Thebes' plague, just as he set it free from the Sphinx. He shows tremendous confidence in his own intelligence. And then Oedipus curses himself, and curses the murderer of the former king -- his own father whom he killed in a quarrel by the roadside. Oedipus' action of murder towards an apparently poor stranger, which he dismisses as fairly inconsequential, also shows how little he values the human life when his personal honor is threatened. However, Oedipus' most quintessentially arrogant action is his denial of the veracity of Tiresias. Tiresias has lived both as a man and as a woman, and although blind, he has been given the gift of foresight of the future. Because Oedipus does not like what Tiresias says, he believes he has the power to ignore the words of the prophet who is transmitting the will and the ideas of the gods. This is one, one might observe, a familiar pattern in Oedipus' life and also the life of his father -- their shared belief that one is able to ignore what the gods say, if one does not like what the gods say through oracles and prophets.

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Oedipus can only think in earthly terms, so he accuses Tiresias of threatening his power, when Tiresias has no desire to be king, and certainly would not want Oedipus' position for the entire world. Tiresias is blind, but he can see the future clearly. As a blind prophet, Tiresias is humble to the inevitability of fate. He does not believe that his ability to see into the future gives him power. He knows that all human beings are just playthings of the gods. Oedipus only comes to this understanding after he realizes that he has fulfilled his terrible fate. This is why he blinds himself, so he will not have to see the horror his life has become, but also as a symbolic act to show his submissiveness, like Tiresias, to the will of the gods. He understands the folly of his past arrogance, loses his status as king, and also his hubris. Oedipus, because of his intelligence, was given the status of king, and the hand of a beautiful queen. He loses everything, not because he is unworthy of these things, but because he has been given a terrible fate and also because he was arrogant enough to believe he could avoid that fate. Thus Oedipus is indeed the paradigmatic tragic hero, not simply because he is given a bad fate he does not deserve from birth, but also because he brings that fate upon his head by trying to resist the destiny given to him by the gods......

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