At this point he is explaining to Jocasta about his fate. He tells her about when he visited Apollo when he found out about his fate he ran away from his adoptive family because it was told that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus said ‘“My fate was to defile my mother’s bed, to bring forth to men a human family that people could not bear to look upon, and slay the father who engendered me.”’ (oed.950-955).…
Gwen Harwood’s work frequently focuses on woman being demoralised by society’s practices that reduce her to a lesser being. A common worldwide value that Harwood rejects as the normality in life with her poems. Harwood battles against the traditions that she believes support this downgrading by continually returning to the issue. Due to Harwood’s existence in a time where women of Australia still fought to vote and for a pay check to match a man’s, Harwood too displays her support. “The Lions Bride” is centred on the subject of marriage and entails the ugliness of the situations that are specific to women. This remains relevant to the modern world because of the ongoing struggle for equality. By using a wedding as a platform to highlight societies imposed traditions on females she seeks to shock the conventional expectations by demonising the widely romantisied event. Harwood extends this and questions treatment of women in the world before any vows are made.…
In Oedipus the King, the main character Oedipus as well as his parents Jocasta and Laius were fated by the gods. It was prophesied that the child of Laius and Jocasta, Oedipus, would kill his father and marry his mother. Afraid of this prophecy coming true, Jocasta and Laius sought to avoid their fate by piercing a spike through baby Oedipus’ ankles and leaving him on a mountaintop to die and therefore preventing the events the prophecy predicted from occurring. However, because of the actions they took to avoid their fate, they actually caused the prophecy to come true. Oedipus is rescued and put in the care of an adoptive family who he believes are his real parents. Because of this, Oedipus runs away from home after hearing the prophecy several years later because he does not want to kill his father or marry his mother. However, his action actually causes the prophecy to come true as he kills his real birth father, Laius, and marries his birth mother, Jocasta, unaware that he was adopted after being found abandoned on the mountainside. In this way, by trying to avoid their fate, Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius actually cause it to happen.…
Despite all efforts, Oedipus could not change his pre-determined fate. He did all in his power to avoid both prophecies, such as running away from Corinth to avoid contact with his known parents, Polybus and Merope. "...I must be banished from Thebes, and then I may not even see my own parents or set foot on my own fatherland-or else I am doomed to marry my own mother and kill my father Polybus..."(Pg:57) On this trip, Oedipus came across a man in a carriage and killed him because he failed to abide by the right of way. After killing the man in the carriage, Oedipus makes his way to Thebes where he concurred the Sphinx and married the Queen of Thebes, Jocasta.…
Oedipus Rex displays an error in judgement by escaping the Corinth prophecy, believing that Teiresias is lying about the prophecy, and also believing that Creon is only there to doom him. By escaping the Corinth prophecy Oedipus still kills his father, Polybus, by being alive. The Prophecy was true. That’s why Oedipus was sent away at only two days old to be left alone on top of a mountain so he could die and Polybus remain king. Teirsias comes to Oedipus and tries to explain that the prophecy is still true and tries to get it out of him, that he is his father’s murderer. Oedipus states “Old man, I did not wish to kill my father” kind of realizng…
Oedipus believes that he is married to a woman he has no relation to, and that the parents he left behind are in fact his own. Teiresias, no longer willing to allow Oedipus to be blind says, " he shall be proved father and brother both to his own children in his own house; to her that gave him birth, a son and husband both; a fellow sower in his father's bed with the same father he murdered" (535- 539). Oedipus himself was ignorant to the fact that he married his mother and then is by blood the father and brother to his children. Regardless to the fact that, Oedipus is unaware of such circumstances they are still the true. In fact ignorance can not inhibit truth from being true. There is only so long Oedipus could be blind to the facts in front of him before he is truly able to see. After Teiresias' words Oedipus begins to question his wife, Jocasta, about her previous husband's murder. All she says leads him to fear that in fact he killed him. Jocasta mentions a shepherd who was still alive that witnessed the murder, so Oedipus decides that in order to figure out if he was the murder he would question the Shepard. In refrence to questioning the shepherd, Oedipus says to Jocasta, "I'll tell you; if I find that his story is the same as yours, I at least will be clear of this guilt" (974-975). Oedipus has guilt inside himself because he is aware that he killed the king. His…
Oedipus was born to Laius and Jocasta the king and queen of Thebes. When Oedipus was born, they consulted an oracle that told them that he would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Fearing for their safety and the safety of their kingdom they had a servant take the infant to the mountains and leave him on the mountain to die. The servant felt sorry for the infant and gave him to a shepherd who in turn gave him to Polybus and Merope the king and queen of Corinth, who raised him as their own. When Oedipus was older, some men at a banquet who were drunk told him that "I am not my fathers' son". (860) Oedipus confronted Polybus and Merope and they were enraged by these accusations. They convinced Oedipus that the accusations weren't true, "so as for my parents I was satisfied (865). However, something was still gnawing at him. He consulted an oracle for himself and the oracle told Oedipus what the oracle told Laius and Jocasta. After he heard that prediction, he left Corinth never to return.…
“Oh, I fled from there, I measure out the stars to put all of heaven in between the land of Corinth and such a damned destiny," Oedipus shouted ferociously. Perhaps the most significant example of Oedipus’s flaw of pride occurs when he hears of Polybus’s death. When the messenger from Corinth tells Oedipus the news, joy consumes Oedipus. Although his father is dead Oedipus now believes that he is free of the curse of the gods. “Aha, my wife! So we are done with delving into Pythian oracles, this jangled mongering with birds on high, which foretold—yes, had it all arranged—that I should kill my father. Ha! He’s dead,” Oedipus exclaims with great joy. The messenger tells Oedipus that he came to bring him home, but Oedipus will not go home because he is scared of the curse. Oedipus tells the messenger the curse, and that he will not go home because his mother is still alive. The messenger is surprised because he knows that Merope and Polybus are not his real parents. The messenger then goes on to tell Oedipus that he received him as a baby from a shepherd, and he gave Oedipus to the king and queen of…
Oedipus hopes to divert the plague on Thebes by identifying the killer of Lauis, as the oracle instructed. He assumes that, although he has killed someone in the past, there is no way he could have been responsible, seeing as how he came to Thebes long after the king's death. Later on, Oedipus accuses Creon of plotting treason against him. In actuality, Creon has no desire to be king; he enjoys all the wealth and comfort without having to take on any of the responsibility. Oedipus, clouded with confusion and paranoia, starts to put the pieces together and glimpses at the horrible truth. He is stubborn in his firm belief that the people who raised him were in fact his blood. Even after Oedipus realizes that his wife, Jocasta, is in fact his mother, he is in just as much disbelief as he is in horror. How could this have happened? Throughout his life, Oedipus has gone to great lengths to prove the oracle wrong. Ironically, so did his parents, and this ultimately is the reason why the events took place. Unknowingly, the decisions that Oedipus makes through his own free will play right into the hands of fate. It is ironic that everything that befalls Oedipus is the result of his own doing, yet most everything he does is an attempt to disprove the…
When Oedipus is told by the the blind prophet Teiresias that he was the man who would kill his own father and marry his mother, he denies this and tries to avoid this fate, "I have kept clear of Corinth, and no harm has come-" to which his messenger replies. "And is this the fear that drove you out of Corinth?" Of course Oedipus denies this fate. Who would want to be accused of such appalling acts? Oedipus is simply trying to do what he thinks is right in order to avoid this fate. One could say that Oedipus is ignorant of the fact that one could not just avoid his fate, others might argue that it was his pride that led him to believe that he was above the power of gods. Yet again, Oedipus is unaware of his parentage, he moves out of his hometown where he thought his parents resided in, and marries the Queen of Thebes. Surely this woman would not be someone who Oedipus would think to be his own mother. This fact alone shows that it is not Oedipus ' hubris that leads to his tragic fall, but him being uninformed. Oedipus was always trying to do the right thing, he searches for the…
In the story of Oedipus Rex, Laius and Jocaste are king and queen of Thebes, and the parents of Oedipus. Laius was warned by an oracle that he would be killed by his own son. Determined to prevent his fate, Laius pierced and bound together the feet of his newborn child and left him to die on a lonely mountain. The infant was rescued by a shepherd and given to Polybus, king of Corinth, who named the child Oedipus and raised him as his own son. Oedipus did not know that he was adopted, and when an oracle proclaimed that he would kill his father, he left Corinth. On his way from leaving, he met and killed Laius, believing that the king and his followers were a band of robbers, there fulfilling his prophecy. Oedipus arrived at Thebes, where he defeats the Sphinx and marries his mother.…
Due to the fact, knowing who his real parents are would make him aware of not killing his father and marrying his mother. As the only reason Oedipus ran from his supposed parents, was to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. Suggesting he would do the same if his supposed parents were his real ones. However, on the other hand the prophecy may have been fulfilled, as in the play fate is stronger than free will. Considering, Oedipus fulfilled the the first part of the prophecy while trying to run away from the prophecy. Indicating, any choice Jocasta made to keep the child will result in the same fate, as the choice Oedipus made to flee the prophecy.…
When Oedipus is completely blind to the truth, he is safe from fulfilling his terrible destiny. It is when he begins to see the truth that he starts to approach his fate. "...a drunken man maundering in his cups / Cries out that I am not my father's son! / ...the suspicion / Remained always aching in my mind," Here, on page 42, Oedipus, in a very minor way, starts to see the truth. By becoming slightly aware of the truth, Oedipus's situation only got worse as his knowledge only escalated with every curious inquiry. Because of what the drunkard said, Oedipus learned about the oracle ("[Oedipus] should lie with [his] own mother... / ...and that he should be his father's murderer" (42) ) and fled for safety from what he thought was his fate. However, he was doing the exact opposite; while fleeing from Corinth, he met his real father, King Laїos, and killed him. He then made his way to Thebes where he married his real mother, Iocaste.…
When Oedipus is being raised by Polybus and Merope a drunk man comes up to him one day and says he is not his father’s son. Oedipus is curious if this was true or not so he decides to ask his parents to tell him the true. His parents were, “bitterly that anyone should dare to put such a story about”(Sophocles 47). It is at this point in Oedipus’s life when he becomes “blind” because now he believes that they are his real parents when they are not. After talking with parents he then goes to Pytho, an oracle, who then tells him his prophecy that he will marry his mother and kill his father. Based on the false information from his step parents, Oedipus is now worried that he is going to kill Polybus and marry Merope. Oedipus later recalls his actions and says , “I fled away, putting the stars between me and Corinth, never to see home again, that no such horror should ever come to pass”(Sophocles 47). This action of fleeing Corinth is based on his intention, which is trying to save his parents from suffering and to prevent any “horror” from happening. Oedipus has the ambition to flee his fate but rather because of his “blindness” to the fact that Polybus and Merope aren’t his real parents his action actually pushes him closer to his fate. This proves that his actions are…
A man is the architecture of his own fate. This can be seen in Sophocles play “Oedipus rex” where the protagonist Oedipus chooses to be blind to the truth , and choose to make impulsive decisions, which leads to his tragic fate . thus oedpipus is the architechure of his own fate.…