Oedipus the king
Michelle Salcedo
OEDIPUS THE KING Mr.Marzian AP English
“Oedipus the King” was a tale depicting the human experience; each human has a great victory, shortly accompanied by a great demise; the rollercoaster of life. Oedipus had his great success soon become the reason for his fall. With Oedipus’ deadly flaw being ‘hubris’; his excessive pride led him to believe he was on the level of ‘gods’. Once he paraded that he was invulnerable (untouchable by even the gods), his fall would be all the more tragic. Throughout the tale however, Oedipus uses many rhetorical devices towards all his subjects without even recognizing. When King Oedipus first hears of the late King Laius’ assassination, he took it upon himself to tell the subjects of Thebes (his kingdom). Oedipus is in search of the killer and uses ethos to appeal to the crowd. “If self-incrimination keeps him silent, let him be assured he need fear nothing worse than banishment…” said Oedipus. This content of the text demonstrates ‘ethos’ because as king he is in charge of punishing wrong-doers. So by telling the people their punishment, credibility is due to his position as ruler of the land. Oedipus then proceeds to connect himself and Laius using metaphoric language. “Whose very scepter I hold in my hands as King… such ties swear me to his side, as if he were my father…” declared King Oedipus to ensure his determination in finding the killer of the son of Labdacus. By saying this, he basically set in stone his destiny without realizing it; he cursed himself. This could be seen as a metaphor because Oedipus in fact had no clue as to the depth of what he was saying to his people. He had spoken these words to his people in order to in some way appeal to them. A way of grasping his sincere intention of finding the culprit. However, being that no subject stepped forward to “confess”, Oedipus got anxious. To express his “disgust” on the topic, he proceeded to damn whoever went
OEDIPUS THE KING Mr.Marzian AP English
“Oedipus the King” was a tale depicting the human experience; each human has a great victory, shortly accompanied by a great demise; the rollercoaster of life. Oedipus had his great success soon become the reason for his fall. With Oedipus’ deadly flaw being ‘hubris’; his excessive pride led him to believe he was on the level of ‘gods’. Once he paraded that he was invulnerable (untouchable by even the gods), his fall would be all the more tragic. Throughout the tale however, Oedipus uses many rhetorical devices towards all his subjects without even recognizing. When King Oedipus first hears of the late King Laius’ assassination, he took it upon himself to tell the subjects of Thebes (his kingdom). Oedipus is in search of the killer and uses ethos to appeal to the crowd. “If self-incrimination keeps him silent, let him be assured he need fear nothing worse than banishment…” said Oedipus. This content of the text demonstrates ‘ethos’ because as king he is in charge of punishing wrong-doers. So by telling the people their punishment, credibility is due to his position as ruler of the land. Oedipus then proceeds to connect himself and Laius using metaphoric language. “Whose very scepter I hold in my hands as King… such ties swear me to his side, as if he were my father…” declared King Oedipus to ensure his determination in finding the killer of the son of Labdacus. By saying this, he basically set in stone his destiny without realizing it; he cursed himself. This could be seen as a metaphor because Oedipus in fact had no clue as to the depth of what he was saying to his people. He had spoken these words to his people in order to in some way appeal to them. A way of grasping his sincere intention of finding the culprit. However, being that no subject stepped forward to “confess”, Oedipus got anxious. To express his “disgust” on the topic, he proceeded to damn whoever went