Preview

Guilt And Shame In Oedipus The King

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
89 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Guilt And Shame In Oedipus The King
The acts of guilt and shame where acted unknowingly. The feelings of guilt and shame were beginning to overwhelm not only Oedipus but also Jokasta. It was forbidden to kill a parent and to have sex with a family member. It had overwhelmed them enough to the point where Jokasta kills herself and Oedipus begins to punch himself in the eyes to go blind. The vision / blindness of Oedipus he could see's when he is blind. When he is blind he said that he made his own
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Decade Of Fear Summary
    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page

    A Decade Of Fear Summary

    Sam Robert’s article, “A Decade of Fear,” discusses the various ways McCarthyism' turned American against American in the decade after World War II.the U.S believed that McCarthyism was only proof of a question as if the government and citizens were loyal to america during war.for example during world war 2 many japanese americans were put in internment camps believing they would support Japan in the war. The US put people in camps cause they feared people would trade them and be used as spyce. The fear of communism started in 1949 when communist mao zedong took over china and the soviet union that created fear on the us cause they thought the soviet union had stolen technology files.…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Blindness In Oedipus Rex
    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Blindness In Oedipus Rex

    In literature, blindness has come to be associated with insight and highly sensitive perception. While Oedipus gains awareness to the truth, no longer blind to his past, before blinding himself, he gains a more spiritual sight after blinding himself. Amidst the terror that strikes in the last few scenes of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is finally able to take control of his fate by stabbing brooches in his eyes and therefore is able to master the goal of deciding his destiny he had been trying to achieve in his life. It’s this blindness that allows him to live spiritually uplifted and no longer concern…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus Selfish Quotes
    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Oedipus Selfish Quotes

    At the beginning of the play Oedipus proclaims justice for the death of Laius. Oedipus claims that he will avenge Laius’ death with the bloodshed of his killer. Being willing to fight for what is right for your people, or in this case your wife, is a more than heroic quality. Not only is he willing to fight for just but he is adamant about it. Throughout the entire play he is in search of the Laius’ killer. A hero overcomes the obstacles and brings victory out of defeat by strength of might and wisdom. Yet most of the Greek heroes had an Achilles’ heel that doomed them. Oedipus is no different. He runs away to protect those he loves, only to find he destroys those he loves as well as himself. He kills his own father with strength of might and ignores the wise warnings of Tiresias. When did he begin to realize that he was sitting on the throne of his own father, whom he had murdered? Oedipus fits the profile of a tragic hero because though he spent the whole play fighting for justice and searching for the answer he is longing for, searching for the cold killer of Laius and promising vengeance by spilling the blood of the murderer. He crumbles and becomes the fool when he finds out that his blood is the answer. In the end his people win their battle over the chaos, but he loses the fight inside himself. Oedipus realizes the metaphorical blindness that has been hindering him throughout the play and decides that the only way to make it right is to physically blind himself with Jocasta’s…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus Rex Rhetorical Analysis
    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Oedipus Rex Rhetorical Analysis

    Oedipus has just stabbed his eyes out after realizing the truth upon Jocasta’ death. After everything he's realized he's done he doesn't believe he deserves to see.Oedipus states, “(Reaching out, groping) Thing thing darkness spilling into me, my black cloud smothering me forever, nothing can stop you, nothing can escape, I Cannot push you away”(1705-1710). This quote uses imagery to convey Oedipus’ state as of now. In the phrase "reaching out” Oedipus is shown as helpless after he becomes physically blind. In the quote Oedipus also states "darkness spilling into me” and “my black cloud smothering me”. These phases appeal to the sense of sight and show that the truth didn't night Oedipus any peace only hardship. He also says “nothing can escape” showing he desperately wants to get away from this truth showing he hasn't really accepted it. Shortly afterward in the text, Oedipus tries to hide away from Thebes because of the truth he has found. Since the truth has brought edit this a lot of shame he isn't willing to stay in Thebes. Instead, he asks to be hidden or even killed. “gods, oh gods, gods, hide me, hide me now far away from Thebes kill me, cast me into the sea drive me where you will never see me- never again.”(1828-1834). Sophocles uses diction and imagery to show Oedipus’ despair brought on by what he's done. Oedipus’ repetition of the word “gods” and…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus The King: A Tragic Hero
    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Oedipus The King: A Tragic Hero

    This instantly places him right on top and boosts him up to fulfill the Kings position. His intuitive instincts and drive to put together his life signified him as a man always on a hunt. These qualities where huge attributes to his life however, he also had many negative traits which would end him. He was a man with a huge temper which leads right to his downfall. Since his temper is what ultimately killed his father, it was obvious that it would not stop there. His lack of emotion and sensitivity to these killing sprees was a sign of a broken man unwilling to wear his heart of his sleeve. A man of pride. This follows even more problems for Oedipus as time continues. He refuses to listen to Teiresias, the blind seer of Thebes. He is informed about his future and is taking back by all that makes sense to him now. He is left alone to figure out what to do next. Instead of handling the situation calmly and effectively, he goes out on an rampage and seeks to kill his wife/mother for not telling him to the truth. Once he arrives, he instantly finds her hung by her own hair. This forces him to completely lose his right state of mind and punishes himself by gauging his…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus The King: A Tragic Analysis
    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Oedipus The King: A Tragic Analysis

    According to Adade-Yeboah, Ahenkora, and Amankwah (2012), “Tragedy is of action and not character as Aristotle puts it” (p. 10). Therefore, Oedipus’ tragedy deals with his ignorance and not his character. Oedipus is ignorant in the fact that he does not realize he is committing patricide or incest (Adade-Yeboah et al., 2012, p. 11). Oedipus grows up knowing two opposite people that he thought were his parents, which leads to him killing his biological father and marrying his biological mother. Oedipus then goes on to search for his biological father’s killer and soon realizes that it was he himself who committed the atrocious acts toward his family. He came to this realization after it was revealed to him by an oracle. Originally, Oedipus believes that the man he originally kills is only just a shepherd, when in return it is his biological father. According to Greenburg (2012), “Oedipus has been told, and has come to believe, that at the end of his life and in death he will have the power to protect the city that has taken him and buried him” (p. 52). Oedipus maintains the belief that things will always be the way he knew them to be and he would be in charge of the city he knew and loved. He maintains this belief until an oracle reveals his misfortune. At first, Oedipus and his wife (biological mother) refuse to believe that what they were told is true. According to…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Oedipus and Blindness Imagery
    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Oedipus and Blindness Imagery

    The second instance of Oedipus' blindness is his misinterpretation of who his true parents are. His hubris bars him from acknowledging the fact that he could not avoid the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother. Oedipus believes that he is the son of Polybus, not knowing that King Laios of Thebes, the man he murdered, is his actual father. What torture for both Jocasta and Oedipus it must be when they discover they have been married to someone of such a close kin as mother and son.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Tragedy In Oedipus The King
    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Tragedy In Oedipus The King

    I saw Oedipus with likeable motives, but his choices purged my emotions for Oedipus. He craves knowledge until he is so disgusted that he sees Jocasta’s suicide and gouges out his own eyes. In the beginning, Oedipus was full of potential but destined to commit evil. The play spirals downwards as Oedipus learns more of his history. Oedipus the King is a moving tragedy. The play follows all concepts written in The Poetics concerning tragedy. The audience is brought to a holistic catharsis, a spiritual revelation, that will help he/she be honorable, more useful and responsible citizens. Like the sudden flip of the face-down card, the audience abruptly disregard their hope for Oedipus realizing his doomed…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Truth In Oedipus The King
    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Truth In Oedipus The King

    Once the truth is uncovered that Oedipus is in fact the murder of his father and married to his mother, his mother kills herself. In seeing this, Oedipus makes the decision to blind himself physically in order to not have to see the results of his sins. "A brothers hands which turned your father's eyes, those bright eyes you knew once, to what you see, a father seeing nothing, knowing nothing, be getting you from his our source of life" (1670- 16730). Oedipus' words are to his daughters once he has blinded himself and wished to be banished. Oedipus himself points out that in fact he is their brother and father. Also that in that realization he blinded himself with his hands in order to "see nothing" and "know nothing". In having the metaphoric blindness removed from Oedipus in him knowing the truth, he physically takes it upon himself to put the blindness back by stabbing his eyes. Oedipus believes that if he is incapable of seeing anything, then in fact that truth which he knows to be true does not exist. The idea that the truth is too overwhelming for him to handle, "to this guilt I bore witness against myself with what eyes shall I look upon my people" (1560). Therefore, not having eyes makes it impossible for him to witness the reactions of the people he governs, once they know the truth. Keeping himself ignorant not only to what he has done, but to…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Remorse In Oedipus The King
    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Remorse In Oedipus The King

    Remorse is the moral anguish, the sorrow and shame, and the regret and guilt, which may haunt even the fiercest, mightiest king. It is often accompanied with the consequences of the individual’s wrongdoing. Remorse takes a principal part in some of Greek’s classic tragedies. One could say, the tragic hero is likely to experience such feelings, likewise in the Greek tragedies Oedipus Rex, rewritten by John Bennett and Moira Kerr, as well as Antigone written by Sophocles, two characters Oedipus and Creon both display signs of remorse. Yet ultimately, it is evident through the emotions displayed, admittance of their sins, and further self imposed retribution, that Oedipus suggests a higher degree of remorse.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Oedipus Suffer
    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Does Oedipus Suffer

    In the play Oedipus causes some of his own suffering. Oedipus’s pride gets him into situations that cause him to suffer later on in the play. “He tore the brooches-the gold chased brooches fastening he robe –away from her and lifting them up high dashed them on his own eyeballs...”(pg.446). Oedipus finds Jocasta in her room after she hung herself and is ashamed. Oedipus has so much pride that he puts himself into denial when he is faced with any situation that can hurt his pride. To protect his pride he stabs himself in the eyes and pokes them out. After truly blinding himself he Oedipus exiles himself because he feel that he doesn’t deserve to die immediately ,he must suffer for the rest of his life. Not only does he have to deal with self-inflicted suffering but the suffering dealt by others.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pride In Oedipus The King
    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Pride In Oedipus The King

    Richard C. Armitage's quote “I have a bit of pride, which is always my downfall.”, is an acknowledgement of a personal fatal flaw, pride, which incidentally is a flaw shared by many of history's great leaders. One example is Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of France, whose pride drove his desire to conquer all of Europe, eventually leading to the downfall of him and the nation he built. Similarly, the Greek word Hamartia, a fatal flaw leading to one’s downfall, applies to many historical leaders as well as a particularly iconic figure in Greek mythology, Oedipus. In Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, there is a tragic figure named Oedipus who fled his home in Corinth in fear of a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. On his journey away from home, he, unknowingly, kills his father and when he arrives at Thebes, Oedipus is able to solve the riddle of the Sphinx thus filling himself with pride. The people of Thebes crown Oedipus as their king and Oedipus marries the queen of Thebes, Jocasta. However,…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Achilles In The Odyssey
    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Achilles In The Odyssey

    Once Oedipus is a grown man he kills his father, Laius, without knowledge of his father’s identity. Then he marries the king’s wife, Jocasta, which is his mother. Hence the term the Oedipus Complex arises. Once his mother comes to the conclusion that Oedipus is her son, she then kills their children and herself. Oedipus sees that his mother and lover has killed herself, he gauges out his eyes so that he doesn’t have to see his sins, and to remind him of the wrongs he had done.…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus Essay
    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Oedipus Essay

    "What walks on four legs at dawn, two legs at noon, and three legs at nightfall." This was the riddle posed by the Sphinx who at the time was destroying the city of Thebes. The riddle was solved by none other than Oedipus who was made king for ridding the city of the Sphinx. Ironically though, Oedipus in his life comes to embody the riddle of the Sphinx and its soulution. Firstly, the Sphinx is percieved as a curse on Thebes and Oedipus also becomes a curse by the end of the play. Secondly, Oedipus's physical health embodies the riddle. Thirdly, Oedipus's emotional state also resembles the riddle. Lastly, the events of Oedipus's life relate to the theme of identity in the play.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus the King Essay
    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Oedipus the King Essay

    Oedipus first shows the indirect side of blindness as to being oblivious. Oedipus shows this depiction of blindness through what he states when he talks to Jocasta about the possible misfortunate events in his life. Oedipus says, in an all-knowing tone, to Jocasta, “You have nothing to be afraid of. Even if my mother turns out to be a slave, and I a slave for three generations back, your noble birth will not be called in question.” Even though Oedipus truly believes that he knows everything, even more than the gods and the oracles, he really is in a state of total oblivion regarding whether or not Jocasta is his real mom. Oedipus’ oblivion leads to an abrupt realization that sends his world spiraling.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics