Oedipus Persuasive Essay

The Tragic Events of Oedipus By the end of Oedipus’ tragic life, he was destroyed. He went from being “on top of the world” to the life of a blinded man with many regrets. Oedipus thinks highly of himself even though he is an arrogant and violent man. Some question whether or not he deserves all the tragedies that are happening to him. Oedipus does deserve all the tragedies that occur in his lifetime because of his certain characteristics and all of the power or control he has. Although he does not like to believe so, Oedipus has flaws. He is arrogant to kill a man over a traffic block, and he is stubborn not to listen to other people in his life such as his own wife and friend when they want to simply help the man. Oedipus’ characteristics are one of the reasons why Oedipus deserves such horrors to happen during his ages. His arrogance is a key factor which makes him deserve his tragedies. When he solves the Sphinx's riddle, it leads him to believe that he could accomplish anything that anyone throws at him. Oedipus also states, “…you all know me, the world knows my fame" (p.1290 line 8). Being arrogant causes the king to fall shortly after that. Secondly if Oedipus was not so stubborn, he might still see and listen to the world around him. Because of this characteristic, Oedipus cannot listen to Jocasta and Creon when they try to stop him from finding out the truth about his real life. His stubbornness eventually causes him to blind himself and then he is eternally unhappy and depressed. Ultimately, Oedipus deserves what happened to him because that is what he asked for. Oedipus had control over many events in his lifetime, but he chose the wrong route in many cases. He chooses to believe the oracle when they describe his faith and leaves Corinth to marry his mother, Jocasta, and kill his father, Laius. He stubbornly chooses to ignore Creon and Jocasta when the two try to stop him from having knowledge of the truth and reality. When he finds out the truth,