Oedipus Search For Truth Analysis

Human beings, for the most part, value truth. Entire professions, such as journalists and police, exist solely to find the truth and most people will say that honesty is the foundation for any sort of relationship. The truth has the power to invigorate or destroy lives and those that know the truth tend to have a significant advantage over those that don’t. Truth relates down to that core question that human beings ask themselves, “Who am I?” The power of truth has led many to search for it without any regard for the consequences of knowing it. Oedipus Rex’s search for the truth leads him down a path of horrid enlightenment with consequences that succinctly bring the life he’s known to an end.
Oedipus seeks the truth about the murder of the king before him, his wife’s deceased husband, which …show more content…
Oedipus’ exile is a means for him to run from the ruins of the lives he destroyed. Despite his relentless search for the truth, Oedipus and Iokaste pretend not to see the similarities arising that show the prophecy being fulfilled. The blind prophet Teiresias tells Oedipus directly that he is the murderer and instead of considering it he flies into a rage with the belief that it’s an attempt to steal his crown. The problem there is that he coerced the prophet into saying at all. They blind themselves to the truth and when they can no longer choose not to see it, they run from it. Iokaste flees into the arms of death where even thinking upon the truth of the matter is impossible. In contrast, Oedipus attempts to blind himself to it once more, physically blinding himself in an attempt to bring back the mental blindness he had forced upon himself. When he finds this to not be enough he literally runs from the havoc he’s unintentionally wreaked. The truth Oedipus sought is not the truth he received and instead of facing the consequences he leaves them for others to deal