Oedipus Rex: a Pure Tragedy

Oedipus Rex the King by Sophocles is a tragic drama. It is tragic because of what has happened to the protagonist, Oedipus, the unfortunate man who has fallen into a terrible fate without his knowing. What makes this story sad and terrible is the ending which ends with gruesome self mutilation of the protagonist. This shows how vulnerable he has become when he comes to fruition about his own life and fate told by oracles, which he with pride doubted and shunned upon their claim.

This Greek epic is a good example of a pure tragedy.

This piece of writing is a great example of a tragedy because it presents the unfortunate fate of a man. He has been stripped down from being king of a nation to being nothing but a blind man left with nothing but himself and the clothes on his back. The story shows the absolute weakness and suffering of a person. It also challenges the fact that your destiny claimed by Oracles cannot be changed no matter what you accomplish or gain, no matter how much pride you have.

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Oedipus is a very confident person; he is actually very arrogant because of what he has accomplished. He was able to challenge the Sphinx with confidence that was in control of Thebes. He was able to answer the riddle they challenged him with. Once successful, he became the King of Thebes and married the queen. This plays a huge roll in his confidence because he grows more and more prideful of what he has become.

He often refers to people as his children because they praise him for his intelligence and braveness against the Sphinx, conquering it, and the country all together.

All this pride and confidence is what mainly led Oedipus to finding out who was the killer of King Laius. The only say the country of Thebes could be saved from plague and sickness of the people occupying was to the the killer of King Laius. This led Oedipus to go out on a full fledged investigation on locating and slaying the murderer. Oedipus wasn’t going to allow anyone to help because of his pride; he put himself and only himself to find the killer. He was mainly doing this as another chance to be the hero of Thebes yet again. As he is king he used that power to demand answers and eventually questioned Teiresias, the herdsman, messenger, Jocasta his wife, and even his brother in law Creon.

Teiresias lets out what he has been holding in for a long time as what it seems. He tells Oedipus that he is the one who has slain King Laius. Oedipus retorts with insults, telling Teiresias that he is nothing but an old blind man and what he has claimed is not true.

Oedipus questions his wife and come to the terrible realization that he is possibly the one who killed King Laius. Also that his curse has been laid upon himself. But he doubts himself and waits for the herdsman to come up and speak his peace. He hopes that the queen has died therefore he can not have possibly been the one who slayed Laius. But a messenger comes and tells Oedipus that his father Polybus, king of Corinth has died of old age. Oedipus is relieved because the prophesy claimed was that the murderer of King Laius killed his own father. The irony of this is that Oedipus has already killed his father, but this joy of Oedipus will soon wash away from him. Oedipus claims he would never come near his parents. He believes that he left his parents and has kept a great distance between them. Jocasta is coming to the realization that Oedipus is nearing the knowledge of his true fate. She begs the gods that he doesn’t find out about his true identity. The herdsman comes and tells Oedipus that he is in fact the one who has killed Laius. Oedipus cannot believe what he has heard. Everything he ever heard from the oracles was true but was too prideful to accept. Jocasta finds out that Oedipus has knowledge of who he actually is and takes her own life to save herself from what could possibly come next. Oedipus finds her dead body and gashes his own eyes out because he feels as if he isn’t worthy to ever see what he has become. He is ashamed of himself, he thinks he doesn’t deserve to see the kingdom he has conquered or deserves to see his two beautiful daughters. This is a direct irony from Teiresias as he causes himself to go blind.

Oedipus’s arrogance and pride ultimately lead to his downfall. He shouldn’t have let his pride get in the way of what the oracles were telling him. If it wasn’t for his yearning and continuous perseverance on trying to the find the killer, all could have been avoided. Jocasta would not have taken her life. He wouldn’t have lost his position as king.

He lost his wife, his eyesight, his children and his kingdom. He finally found out who was the true killer by investigation and in doing that he found out more information about his own life and couldn’t avoid his own destiny. He was born with it and there was nothing that could be done to change that.

That is why this story is such a tragedy. Oedipus Rex the King is a saddening story riddled with tragedy, irony and controversy. There is nothing that could be done to stop any of these unfortunate events that Oedipus could avoid. He wouldn’t have been able to stop anything from happening. He didn’t know he was destining to be king of a nation, defeat the Sphinx, or marry his own mother. That’s what makes this so ironic and tragic. He couldn’t keep his nation from becoming plagued. If Oedipus Rex was able to refrain from being so confident and aggressive, he could’ve potentially avoided everything unrolled in this story. Everything that has happened to Oedipus was unavoidable and that what makes this story so tragic.