Identity Crisis In Oedipus

Decent Essays
Oedipus The story of Oedipus is about one who finds his identity though everything that has happened to him in his past and present. To the ancient Greeks, knowledge is the key to everything to them. To this story, there are many themes throughout it. Some of these themes are fate vs. free will, guilt and shame, and sight vs blindness. This is a story about a tragic hero and a tragic error one made, who has a huge identity crisis, and he feels like he’s been living a lie, as soon as he finds out he is not the son of one man, King Polybus. This identity crisis is the core of the character and what makes him, Oedipus. The play opens up as the city of Thebes has a plague going around. Oedipus seems to be a strong and indestructible character. …show more content…
Jocasta eventually tells him about the son her and Laius made together that they had made in order to get back at the Gods, as Laius has committed hubris against the oracle of Hubris. The Gods had told him that his fate would be that his son would come and kill him, so that is when they abandoned the child in the woods, leaving it there to die, hoping that the baby would not come and kill Laius. This baby being Oedipus, was found a shepherd in the woods, that took him to the king of Corinth, Polybus and his wife, Merope. This is who Oedipus had believed were his parents were from when he was born, until at his birthday party, someone came up to him and told him, drunkenly, that he was not the son of Polybus. “There was a dinner and at it a man, a drunken man, accused me in his drink, of being a bastard (Sophocles 1584).” This was when Oedipus first had his identity …show more content…
He confronted his “parents” about the news he had received. “Next day I went and taxed my parents with it; they took the insult very ill from him, the drunken fellow who had uttered it (Sophocles 1584).” Oedipus had not believed the man, as his parents made him think the man was not right at all, but he could not help but wonder. This was when he wondered off to find the Oracle to determine his prophecy. There was when he found out that, in fact, that he would murder his father and marry his mother. He decided not return back to Corinth, because he was too angry to confront his parents about them lying to him. He, therefore, decided to go find Thebes. He encountered a three path crossway, where he encountered King Laius, even though he did not know the man, or the fact he was his father. He then murders King Laius at this path on his way to find his

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Oedipus Pride Quotes

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Then, he figures out who is the murderer and finds the truth about the prophecy that he is going to kill his father and marry with his mother. He and other people figure out the prophecy of Oedipus is…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Book Of Job Vs Odyssey

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages

    At some point in their lives, most people have heard their parents utter a variation of the phrase, "Life's not fair". This phrase about the injustice of life is a common theme that has shown up within many literary works throughout time. For example, we can find this theme in "The Odyssey", "Oedipus Rex", and even "The Book of Job". "The Odyssey" is a story about a King named Odysseus, who is fated by the gods to make a perilous from Troy to his home in Ithaca. The only reason for this journey is that the gods' wanted the pleasure of seeing Odysseus suffer.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The protagonist is introduced as a beloved sovereign and hero. “Oedipus – power to whom all men turn – man of experience – noblest of men, we beg you, save this city. Thebes now calls you its savior…” (Sophocles, 7) However, because he refuses Tiresias’ pity—his poor judgement—a reversal of fortune occurs: his wife commits suicide, incest is revealed, and Oedipus is struck with the curse he unknowingly placed upon himself. This reversal and his enlightenment to it occur at once.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In hopes to ruin this prophecy, King Laius takes his son and leaves him on the mountainside to die. Oedipus is then found by the shepherd and raised by him and his wife. Later Oedipus found out about this prophecy, but was unaware that the couple that raised him wasn’t the couple who birthed him. So he left his mom and dad in hopes to ruin the prophecy. On his way over to the next city, he meets a man and had a falling out, and Oedipus ended up killing the man, who he later found out was his father.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oedipus the King by Sophocles is a story which has lived well beyond its time, and in some ways is still relevant today. At the center of the play lies the king of Thebes - Oedipus - a ruler who has been faced with the task of calming the public in the midst of a plague. To Oedipus’ dismay however, the plague becomes the least of his worries as the story unfolds through various twists and turns. Today, Oedipus is a part of nearly every high school and college curriculum, but is commonly presented simply as text rather than its true intentions - to be performed. In Sophocles’ time, theatrical plays were performed in sunlight, with very basic sets, props, and costumes.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Having too much knowledge can destroy, more than it can benefit. The truth can bring light into our life as well darkness. It may haunt us in the future and nothing is recoverable. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, a Greek tragedy, Oedipus becomes king after saving the city from the Sphinx but, Thebes was contaminated by a dreadful plague; a plague caused by Oedipus himself. The son of the King from Cornith, was honored and applauded by various people of Thebes for his fearless action.…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is a lot of controversy about whether or not Oedipus was aware of his past, and who he was from the very beginning of the play. Oedipus was simply full of pride, and chose to ignore the obvious evidence that pointed him to be Laius’s killer. Oedipus was ignorant and arrogant, and not smart enough kill his father, marry his mother, and keep it all from the Kingdom of Thebes. There were many times in the play when Oedipus was given information that he could have used to piece together the fact that the prophecy had come true, and he blatantly chose to ignore this information. “ ….…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Later, Oedipus insists that he is not guilty to Jocasta by retelling the story of his life before arriving at Thebes. He points out that he cannot be the murderer of his father, since when he learned of his prophecy, “‘I went where I should never see the disgrace / Of my evil oracles be brought to pass’” (770-771). In other words, Oedipus thinks that by running away from Corinth, he can escape his fate. He unwittingly carries out a part of his downfall by returning to Thebes, where his real parents live, setting off the chain reaction that leads to his downfall.…

    • 1642 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Truth In Oedipus Rex

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Oedipus was then adopted by the King and Queen of Corinth. He believed that they were both his birth parents, so, when Oedipus had not stayed ignorant to the truth about the prophecy, he left in order that the prophecy not be fulfilled. Because of this event, Oedipus to meet Laius on a street. He then killed his own father by “swinging my club in this right hand I [Oedipus] knocked him out of his car, and he rolled on the ground.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I chose to write my essay over how the theme topics of blindness and identity influence the character of Oedipus. Oedipus is a character that stands out to me because he is very wise, but takes a long time to solve his own “riddle”. Oedipus must solve the conflict given to him by Apollo, to break the curse on Thebes from the plague that could potentially wipe out the town. After reading this play I am shocked that Oedipus, a well-respected and known man, would have killed Laius, his father and previous ruler of Thebes. Throughout the play, Oedipus was blind to what he had done, blind to the truth of his identity, and even blinded of sight due to gouging out his own eyes.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When Oedipus was a baby, his parents, Laios and Jokasta, received a prophecy that their little boy would grow up and kill his father and sleep with his mother. In order to save Laios from death and Jokasta from humiliation, they decided to exile Oedipus and leave him to die. They thought their selfish feat would save them from the miserable fate that had been placed upon them, but it didn’t. Oedipus, who was found where his parents had left him with his feet bound, grew up believing he was the son of the king and queen of Korinth. Early on in Oedipus’s life, he experienced an interaction with an oracle that revealed to him his horrific fate.…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex shows how people let their emotions control them to the point where they can no longer think rationally. There are many instances where the characters in the play let their emotions cloud their judgement, which leads to the gods punishing them for their actions. King Laius and Queen Jocasta are told that their infant son is fated to kill its father, and couple with its mother, which causes them to panic. They decide to try to prevent this prophecy by leaving him to die on a mountaintop. A servant feels pity for the baby, and gives him away to another king so that he will not have to die.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Fate and Personal Responsibility in Oedipus the King In Sophocles 's Oedipus the King, Oedipus suffers a tragic fate after learning that he is the cause of the plague that is devastating his city. Although Oedipus does not directly bring the plague into to the city, it becomes increasingly clear throughout the play that the plague is a punishment from the gods for unknowingly killing his father and marrying his mother. The play begins in the middle of things, so understanding the preceding events is critical in understanding who is responsible for the tragedy. Before the play begins, King Laius of Thebes and his wife Jocasta abandon their son Oedipus and leave him for dead after an oracle tells them their son is fated to kill his…

    • 1926 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The anagnorisis of “Oedipus the king” is when Oedipus, Jocasta, and all the other character in the story find out that Oedipus actually did murder Laius his own father and Jocasta is really his mother as also his wife. Oedipus discovers that the child of King Laius and Queen Jocasta was sent given away to a shepherd to die as a child. Oedipus goes on to get some testimonies to make absolutely sure, even though it is obvious that he was Laius’s killer. He brings Tiresias to confront him to tell him the truth. “I say you are the murderer you hunt” (412) Tiresias tells Oedipus stating that he killed his own father Oedipus being ignorant he doesn’t believe Tiresias.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When Oedipus decides to punish himself for his horrible crime, he tells Creon, Jocasta’s brother, to bring Oedipus’ daughters to him. He says to them, “Your father killed his father and sowed the seed where he had sprung himself and begot you out of the womb that held him” (1685-1687). Oedipus tries to escape his fate but Sophocles creates this dramatic scene in order to show the audience that fate will catch up with you sooner or later. Oedipus’ whole life revolved around this one oracle and every aspect of his life lead up to him fulfilling the…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics