Sophocles - Oedipus Rex Oedipus Essay

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At different times, Oedipus issues contradictory self-characterizations, perhaps as a metaphor for the duality of his personality and his inability to control his passionate overreactions. Speaking of his cool logical ability in solving the riddle of the Sphinx, he says, "But I came, Oedipus who knew nothing, and I stopped her. I solved the riddle by my wit alone." Yet, in remembering the tragedy that he perpetrated on his way home from Corinth, this same man recounts his murderous reaction to provocation:

But he [Laius] was paid in full and presently my stick had struck him backwards from the carriage and he rolled out of it and then I killed them all." The implication is that when Oedipus (unknowingly) encountered his father, he was in the midst of trying to escape from his own future as foretold by Apollo and that this, as much as any actual provocation of being struck on the head by a "two-pointed goad," accounted for his extreme overreaction.

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Both Oedipus' wife Jocasta and brother-in-law Creon refer to Oedipus' fatal flaw. According to Jocasta, "...Oedipus excites himself too much at every sort of trouble...." Likewise, Creon (speaking directly to Oedipus) proclaims, "I see you sulk in yielding and you're dangerous when you are out of sorts." Thus, the character of Oedipus that emerges in his own words as well as in those of the individuals who know him best. Far from being the cold-hearted person whose ruthlessness evidences an unfeeling passionless killer, Oedipus is so moved by human passions that his emotional reactions temporarily paralyze his rational mind altogether. Ultimately, Oedipus is prone to overreaction and self-destruction by the extreme intensity of his emotions rather than by any coldness of heart or psychological insulation from them in the manner sometimes suggested by contemporary readers of Sophocles' tragedy......

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