The stubbornness of Oedipus is another cause his downfall in the story was so hurried. He was always so tenacious about saving the city he was reigning over that he could not stop and take the advice of the people around him, who were trying to help him through the Pestilence that was caused by the Greek God Apollo. This flaw also came into play when it came to the investigation of Laius’, the previous king of Thebes, murder, which was the final thing that led him to …show more content…
his downfall.
Throughout the story, Oedipus had a very short temper, which caused him to cause different conflicts throughout the story.
His anger would always overwhelm his intelligence and reason, and that’s what got him into problems through that play. For an illustration of this flaw; he yelled at the Blind prophet, Teiresias, and afterwards accused the murder on him out of fury about the fact that he would not talk to him about the situation, “ Rage? Why not! And I’ll tell you with I think: You planned it, you had it done, you all but killed him with your own hands: if you had eyes, I’d say the crime was yours, and yours alone.” (Sophocles, 215). The Hubris that Oedipus had been the main reason he never listened to the people that were trying to help him or let them help when it was most necessary. This hubris caused him to become egotistic during the story “I, Oedipus who bear the famous name…” (Sophocles,
205).
At the end of the play, Oedipus is finally starting to put all the pieces together, and he starts to question his entire truth-seeking process he has accepted for the whole story. Once he figured it out, he was in denial about the truth, which caused an even stronger sense of inner blindness and then, though he has looked at the circumstances and details and pretend out to see the obvious reality that’s right in front of them and has been for years. This is irony because he was famed for his quick thinking, amazing comprehension and clear-sightedness in different circumstances.
The focus of Oedipus in the play was that trying to prevent his downfall, but that failed by the end of the play, due to the fact it was all caused by all his character flaws in the story. He has many flaws, which always started different conflicts in the story, all of which slowly led him to his downfall in the story. All of his character flaws are the reason for his quick and terrible downfall from his throne into poor, ever-wandering blind man he has become by the end of the story.