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Oedipus the King Character Analysis

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Oedipus the King Character Analysis
Latisha Chateman Professor: Dr. Lancaster ENG230 11/25/2010 Oedipus the King Character Analysis
Oedipus the King had accomplished many great things during his reign of Thebes and in his life time. Oedipus found out during his reign in Thebes that the Gods who loved him also knew his devastating fate. As a young man when Oedipus answered the riddle the Sphinx he soon found his self having everything want and need. He earned his spot as the new King of Thebes, he had a great wife and lovely set of children and last but not least a widely known name and fame that traveled way throughout the lands. Oedipus life was wonderful until the plague hit Thebes and there forth the cookie crumbled. “The point of many of our tragedies seems to be that, since the character cannot escape his or her fate, that each of us, given a set of circumstances, would do the same thing.”( Jon Blackstock ) I believed should have sympathy because were many pieces in the story that he did not know but his character of anger, overreacting, teasing Tiresias, and fate is what brought Oedipus down to an ugly fate.
Oedipus themes and ideas of irony and fate happened over and over numerous times throughout the play. He believed in fate like the entire Greeks society does but he mostly believes in his own capital ability and action to seek out and determination of his future. Irony can have so many forms it is evident that irony is situational, verbal and dramatic. In the story of Oedipus on relies on really himself because he believes in his own mind first to support his decision of wisdom making were made by his analyzed thoughts. Sophocles was always a very strong believer of destiny, but in the story of Oedipus the King he had different alternatives. In Oedipus, Sophocles made Oedipus believe in himself more than which he proves many times throughout the play. In Thebes the priest go to Oedipus to see about stopping the plague that is killing and



Cited: Blackstock, Jon. "Oedipus the King ." Suite 101. Suite 101, 09/16/1999. Web. 25 Nov 2010. <http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/teaching_theatre/25730 Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Quotation." Think Exist. N.p., 1853. Web. 25 Nov 2010. <http://thinkexist.com/quotation/for_every_minute_you_are_angry_you_lose_sixty/14504.html The Norton Anthlogy:World Literature-Oedipus The King. 2nd. First. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, 2009. 576. Print. UThinker, . "Oedipus the King: Tiresias By Sophocles." AssociatedContent. Arts and Entertainment by: Yahoo.com, 11,15,2008. Web. 25 Nov 2010. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1108311/oedipus_the_king_tiresias_by_sophocles_pg2.html?cat=38>.

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