Pride In Sophocles Oedipus The King

The doubled-edged sword of excessive amour-propre better known as pride, is liable to stab those who posses it when they least anticipate the injury. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. the wound that he was initially numb to became prevalent as the sequence of events took a turn for the worst. Due to his hubris, King Oedipus’ fall from grace was the least bit graceful. It is evident that he suffers with hubristic pride, which according to Jessica L. Tracy and Richard W. Robins can be interpreted as “having one’s passions cluster around the ego”. This hubris is a result of him being egotistical, he also suffers from narcissism, self-righteousness, greedy,tenacious, impatient, and head strong. There are several actions consciously and unconsciously committed by the hero done under the influence of hubristic pride that the character used to inadvertently precipitate his demise. They include …show more content…
“Tiresias, you who understands all things (…)” is how Oedipus initially greets Tiresias (3). Surprisingly, it is actually respectful. As usual, events take a turn for the worst when Oedipus claims Tiresias is withholding information. Due to his hubris, he views himself as supreme in comparison to all others with the exception of the Gods. Therefore, when Tiresias declines to provide the information necessary to relieve his city Oedipus took it as a personal attack. When the prophet reveals the truth Oedipus immediately becomes defensive, but often hubristic pride is a result of a “defensive response to underlying feelings of shame” (Tracy and Robins 6). His headstrong ways because of pride lead to him calling Tiresias a “scoundrel” and even pointing the finger at his close associate Creon. One could even say that he was disgusted that the accusation was thrown at him out of all of those who occcupy Thebes. This was his tertiary blunder in the ancient greek