Self-Damnation in Oedipus the King Essay -- Oedipus Rex Essays

Self-Damnation in Oedipus Rex (the King) Sophocles play Oedipus Rex (the King) is a tragic tale of fate and hubris. At first off glance, it seems that the terrible fates of the main characters are merely the doings of mischievous or cruel gods. That Laios should die at the manpower of his unknowing son, that Jocaste should later follow that son to commit the crime of incest, and that Oedipus, the son, should be the actor in two crimes all seem to be deeds scripted unfairly by the gods for their own pleasure. However, upon examining the evidence in the play, it becomes clear not all that Laios and Jocaste direct cause their own fates by devastateing the infant Oedipus to die on the mountain, unless that Oedipus is himself a willing participant in his own crimes. In choosing to abandon Oedipus upon his birth, Laios and Jocaste try to prevent the fulfillment of Apollos prophecy Laios down at the hands of a son, our son, to be born of our own flesh and blood (Sophocles 201). The y trussed the babys ankles and had a henchman fling him away on a barren, untracked mountain (201). This done, the king and queen live their lives believing that they are proficient from any danger that the child might pose. It is their cowardly act of attempting to escape valve fate that seals their doom, however. Not only do they decide to kill their only child, but they are unable to do so in a humane manner. Rather than relieve their son of any misery, they tie his ankles together and abandon him to the harsh elements of nature on a mountain. They are blissfully unaware that a shepherd has taken pity on the violet child and has delivered him to the care of King Polybos of Corinth (218). Clearly, by their self-preserving act of child-abandonment, Lai... ...renberg, Victor. Sophoclean Rulers Oedipus. In ordinal Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, modify by Michael J. OBrien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubre y de Selincourt. England Penguin Books, 1972. Segal, Charles. Oedipus genus Tyrannus Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New York Twayne Publishers, 1993. Sophocles In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag= universal&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi Bowra, C. M. Sophocles Use of Mythology. In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1997.