Oedipus The King Human Greatness Quotes

Human greatness lies not in externals, such as power, position, or wealth, these could all disappear in an instant; human greatness lies within, in the capacity to suffer, in one’s readiness to accept the truth no matter how painful, in being responsible for all of one’s actions, and in the nobility of self-sacrifice. Oedipus the King demonstrates this quote very well in many ways, such as the fact that Oedipus believes that he is great because of his position of power and wealth. However, towards the end of the play he concludes contrary to his beliefs at the beginning. Also, due to Oedipus’s excessive pride or hubris he believes that he can rid the city of the plague and solve any problem and then the gods play a cruel trick on him to show that he is not as great as he thinks. This play was written by Sophocles. It was first performed in 429 BC. The genre of this play is tragedy. This play demonstrates the quote above very well in several ways. Some evidence is that Oedipus thinks he is great because he solved the sphinx’s riddle and believes that he is equal if not greater than the gods. Proof of this is this quote “I, Oedipus, a name that all men know… What is on your minds? Are you afraid? In need? Be sure I am ready to do all I can. I should truly be hard-hearted to have no pity on such prayers as …show more content…
An observation I made about human condition is that humans have a mixture of fate and free will. This play demonstrates this because Oedipus thought he could avoid what the prophecy stated by leaving his “parents” and the prophecy still came true. It demonstrates free will in the fact that Oedipus gouges his eyes out for punishment for the crimes he committed and these punishments he chose