Many people believe that they achieve the ultimate understanding of things in the universe, until they found the “truth”. In Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex, the limit of human understanding and Oedipus’ rational form of investigation into his father’s murder clearly marked the limit line of human condition. In the play, Oedipus is living in his fantasy where he just starts to awake. In his fantasy world, he believes that he has total control over his fate and identity. He thinks that he has three virtues: reason, intelligence, and self-control. However, he realizes that he is mistaken on all three when he tries to use these virtues. The first false that he believe is his intelligence, he hopes to have control and power over things that are happening
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He can listen carefully, but when anger comes in play, he starts to stop listening to anyone’s opinion except his own point of view. He believes that he is rational or logical, which is also his second virtue, in finding the murderer. Just like his cleverness, his anger leads him to his fate. He is angry at Teresias and refuses to listen to her warnings because she puts him down by saying, “You blame my temper but you do not see your own that lives within you” (Sophocles 24). For the rest of the conversation, Oedipus is angry because he wants to save the city and she makes him doubts in himself. In the end, the fate of the city fades in his memory. He then gets angry with Creon who is Oedipus’ family member and says nothing bad to Oedipus. Oedipus imposes his self-doubt to others without considering about their relationship with him. There is one scene where he describes his own guilt when he accuses Creon without knowing that he is talking his crime, “Have you so much brazen-faced daring that you venture in my house although you are proved manifestly the murderer of that man, and though you tried, openly, highway robbery of [the] crown? . . . Was it not stupid of you to make the attempt . . . without the people at your back or friends?” (Sophocles 33). Oedipus kills his own father similarly to the robbery of the crown. He then took the crown with little respect from the people in the city. He becomes …show more content…
Oedipus does not only believe that he has self-control, but he is self-created. He is not tied to any property, nor anyone. Satisfaction and fulfillment is not an illusion as much as self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment. Oedipus is independent, listening to no one, and not grateful to anyone. Looking deeper at the crime of Oedipus, it is not really killing his father, but it is abandoning his father. When Teresias mentions about his parents, Oedipus responds, “What parents? Stop! Who are they in all the world?” (Sophocles 29). By this way, he is refusing to see his own fate by avoiding the image of his parents, and only by this way he can obtain total freedom. Of course, no one is fatherless, and from here every problem goes back to the matter of his birth. Finally when he finds out that he is the killer of his father’s death, he realizes that his freedom is just an illusion. Later on he says, “O,O where am I going, my friend…you still stay nursing the blind man. Your care is not unnoticed” (Sophocles 68). Oedipus let others guide him because he blinds himself now. By now, he knows how others shape his fate, and see the world in a different way. In the end, he figures out that he no control over his fate, nor his
He can listen carefully, but when anger comes in play, he starts to stop listening to anyone’s opinion except his own point of view. He believes that he is rational or logical, which is also his second virtue, in finding the murderer. Just like his cleverness, his anger leads him to his fate. He is angry at Teresias and refuses to listen to her warnings because she puts him down by saying, “You blame my temper but you do not see your own that lives within you” (Sophocles 24). For the rest of the conversation, Oedipus is angry because he wants to save the city and she makes him doubts in himself. In the end, the fate of the city fades in his memory. He then gets angry with Creon who is Oedipus’ family member and says nothing bad to Oedipus. Oedipus imposes his self-doubt to others without considering about their relationship with him. There is one scene where he describes his own guilt when he accuses Creon without knowing that he is talking his crime, “Have you so much brazen-faced daring that you venture in my house although you are proved manifestly the murderer of that man, and though you tried, openly, highway robbery of [the] crown? . . . Was it not stupid of you to make the attempt . . . without the people at your back or friends?” (Sophocles 33). Oedipus kills his own father similarly to the robbery of the crown. He then took the crown with little respect from the people in the city. He becomes …show more content…
Oedipus does not only believe that he has self-control, but he is self-created. He is not tied to any property, nor anyone. Satisfaction and fulfillment is not an illusion as much as self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment. Oedipus is independent, listening to no one, and not grateful to anyone. Looking deeper at the crime of Oedipus, it is not really killing his father, but it is abandoning his father. When Teresias mentions about his parents, Oedipus responds, “What parents? Stop! Who are they in all the world?” (Sophocles 29). By this way, he is refusing to see his own fate by avoiding the image of his parents, and only by this way he can obtain total freedom. Of course, no one is fatherless, and from here every problem goes back to the matter of his birth. Finally when he finds out that he is the killer of his father’s death, he realizes that his freedom is just an illusion. Later on he says, “O,O where am I going, my friend…you still stay nursing the blind man. Your care is not unnoticed” (Sophocles 68). Oedipus let others guide him because he blinds himself now. By now, he knows how others shape his fate, and see the world in a different way. In the end, he figures out that he no control over his fate, nor his