Justice In Oedipus The King

Kimi Mattos
Barbara Parsons
English 111
12 October 2012
Character in Drama: Oedipus In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, justice and vengeance are the gods‘. Oedipus tries to avoid a prophesy told to him by Teiresias, however because of his pride, Oedipus falls right into his god-fated tragedy. Oedipus, attempting to prove that he is above such things by “avoiding” the prophesy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. He does this by running away from his parents’ kingdom, then Oedipus responds to this the gods’ vengeance with anger, then with ignorance, denial, and belittling comments, ever-believing he can outsmart the gods. Through his struggle he realizes that the gods’ justice is the only justice, and that fate, freewill and
justice are all up to them. Oedipus runs away from his parents’ kingdom.
He runs with the Denial and belief he can outsmart the gods and their justice (or injustice), but they’ve already doomed him. For whatever reason they have cursed him and his family to their fate and as he runs “away” from his childhood home he is actually running towards his downfall. After running away, Oedipus tells his wife and mother Jocasta that he will, “never go near his parents again” (DiYanni 984). This statement is particularly ironic since it is his mother herself who he tells this to. It is within reason to run though. Oedipus does not see it fair to be blamed for an ancestral wrong. You can see this in his question, “What has God done to me?“ (DiYanni 992). He does not find the god’s justice just, and so he decides that he will never return despite that, “it would have been good to see [his] parents again” (DiYanni
948). In his second attempt to understand justice, Oedipus gets angry. He gets angry at Teiresias, who tries to keep the truth hidden by saying such things as, “Let me go home. Bear your own fate and I’ll Bear Mine. It is better so: trust what I say.” and “No; I will never tell you what I know, Now it is my misery; then it would be yours” (DiYanni 967 and 968). Oedipus also pushes towards his own justice in an attempt to save his people “sick with plague”. Instead of asking the gods for help, he goes on his own quest to find the king’s killer. This is why he sends for Teiresias; because he figures Teiresias is the only one who “can guard or sane [them]” (DiYanni 967). Despite his warnings Oedipus responds by calling Teiresias wicked old man, arrogant, insolent, shameless, and after he reveals the truth, continues calling him sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man, and child of endless night (DiYanni 968 and 969). The pride of Oedipus the king is eminent in this instance. Teiresis’ truth to Oedipus was that “you are the murderer whom you seek” (DiYanni 969). This caused his outburst of pride and disbelief and name-calling proving that at this point, Oedipus does not yet submit to the truth that the gods are in control. It gets worse as Oedipus and Jocasta both give testimonies of how they’ve both attempted to outsmart the gods. Jocasta reveals that “an oracle was reported to Laios once… That his doom would be death at the hands of his own son…[but] Laios was killed by marauding strangers” (DiYanni 977). Also Jocasta says “[Polybius] was the man whom Oedipus, long ago, Feared so, fled so, in dread of destroying him- but it was another fate by which he died” (DiYanni 983), natural causes. Even so, Oedipus chases his own origins and searches for the murderer, despite Teiresias’ and now, Jocasta’s pleas to stop. Striving for his own destiny -one that he can choose himself- Oedipus continues on. It is only after Oedipus realizes “Ah God!
It was true! All the prophecies” that he ran to fulfill the prophesy not to avoid it (DiYanni 988). He finally understands then, and blinds himself (DiYanni 991). Blinds himself to the things he’s seen that he never should have, but also to his own justice so that he san finally see what he began realizing earlier in the play, that, “[he is] not sure the blind man can not see” (DiYanni 978). It is blindness that brings Oedipus his true sight, but even so, Creon must remind him, “Think no longer That you are in command here, but rather think How, when you were, you served your own destruction” , and to ask the gods for an answer rather than going off and assuming it is their will, proving there was still defiance in him (DiYanni 998). Even through the end. Life a search for justice and Oedipus always had justice. First his own justice fueled by pride, his own justice, and then supernatural justice, as he realized too late to let go of the tragic flaw, pride and of his foolish belief in freewill, and submit to the gods’
plan.

DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 2ndeed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.