Premium Essay

Oedipus Flaws

Submitted By
Words 910
Pages 4
Oedipus Rex is one of many plays written by Sophocles. It’s the first of three plays telling the story of Oedipus, the King of Thebes that tries to run from his prophecy of him killing his father and marrying his mother. Oedipus attempts rather fruitlessly to avoid this ill fate, but only manages to run right into it. Oedipus has multiple flaws that can contribute to him running towards his fate, and I believe Oedipus’ biggest flaw is that he is a coward. Oedipus attempts to run away from his problems instead of facing them head on.
When Oedipus is initially confronted by Teiresias about killing his own father, he freaks out. He immediately accuses Tiresias of lying about what happened and believes he’s doing to it cover up the fact that Tiresias himself is really the one that killed Laius (Pg. 21). Oedipus won’t even listen to Tiresias’ …show more content…
Oedipus ends up taking the pins from her robe and gouging his eyes out because he simply cannot handle the truth. He tells his children that “Apollo. Apollo. Dear Children, the God was Apollo. He brought my sick, sick fate upon me” (page 72). This example from the passage shows how Oedipus shifts full responsibilities for his actions on the Gods, and blames them for his own actions. Oedipus blinding himself shows how he’s dealing with what he’s done. He can’t face it himself, so he escapes it by getting rid of his sight. All he wants to do is get away, not face and accept the problem. He then tells his brother in law that he wants to forever leave the country of Thebes. He tells him to take care of his children for him after he’s gone. He says one last goodbye to his kids and then proceeds to leave. Oedipus ran away from his problems, no matter the cost. He leaves his children to Creon to deal with, once again hiding from his own problems and

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Oedipus Tragic Flaw

...It's hard to acknowledge Oedipus tragic flaw I will explain who explain who or what is responsible for his downfall. Basically the theme of the book is “the desire to avoid the truth” basically the truth about his history. He's the son the prophecy foretold the one who would kill his father and marry his mother. Unfortunately, oedipuss desire to avoid the truth only puts off the inevitable and the tragic irony is that even as the facts are piling up against him, Oedipus can't seem to make even the most obvious connections. The desire to avoid the truth manifest itself, all along Oedipus continues to look at the truth, but never to really see it. There has been many reviews on showing how Oedipus is in fact a tragic flaw or tragic hero, for...

Words: 659 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Oedipus the King Fate and Flaw

...Oedipus, the ruler of Thebes, approaches a group of unhappy citizens, represented by a priest, and asks them what is wrong. They answer that the city is dying and that they are sick and poor. Oedipus sympathizes and tells them that, as their ruler, he is also troubled by the sickness of the city, and has already taken steps to see that something be done about it. The first step he has taken was to send Creon to Apollo's shrine to see what the god recommends they do. As Creon appears, he tells them that the god, Apollo, said that there is bad blood in Thebes, and that until this blood is expelled Thebes will be a sick city. This bad blood is the blood of the person who killed Laios. When Oedipus asks why the case was not investigated, as he had not come to Thebes at that point, the people answer that they were too busy trying to solve the Sphinx's riddle. Oedipus says that no matter what the cost is, he will get to the bottom of it, both because it harms Thebes, and because Laios was noble and loyal. The elders say that they do not have any knowledge of the murder, and suggest that Oedipus call Tiresias, a blind prophet, to help and advise him. Oedipus says that he has already done this, and Tiresias arrives promptly. Although reluctant to speak, Oedipus forces Tiresias to reveal what he knows. Tiresias says that Oedipus is Thebes' pollution and that he killed his father and sleeps with his mother, and that this is the truth. Oedipus accuses Tiresias of lying on Creon's behalf...

Words: 420 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Lord of the Flies

...loSociety: The Flaw of Everyone The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a more of an experiment than a novel, an experiment that will, by the end, show all of the flaws of an unjust or unfair society. In the book a large group of young boys get stranded on an island while flying home all because their plane got attacked via an act of war and crashed on an island. This stroke of bad luck is the perfect situation to show how the flaws of a modern society can get out of hand very fast if not taken control of quickly. Two of the main characters in the book are two boys named Ralph and Jack. When they are first on the island Ralph is the person with the idea to pick up a conch shell on the beach and blow into it to call everyone on the island to come meet up at the beach. When everyone arrives at the beach they are told that there are only those boys left and no adults. The boys realize that with no adults to lead them they will have to vote to see who will become their leader. Everyone comes to an agreement to vote Ralph as their leader, except for one person. Jack also wants to be a leader, so Ralph appoints him to be leader of a choir of boys that will be in charge of hunting to get food for everyone on the island. Despite the fact that Jack is put in a leadership position he is very anxious to be the leader of the island. In a civilization like ours, that is normal, everyone wants to be the person in charge. But, when you are stranded on an island where anything goes...

Words: 478 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

#Iheartenglish

...from the fact that he receives help from the gods. For example, Euanthes who grants Odysseus in his trouble gifts that will get him and his crew the opportunity to regain their strength. He also receives help from an entity named Dawn. In a way this character represents Odysseus and almost foretells the struggles he will later be facing. In a section he introduces this entity, “Young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more we all turned out, intrigued to tour the island.” From there we can see the struggles he faces with himself to overcome the many obstacles that Zeus inflicts on Odysseus in hopes to prevent his journey to go any further. Another characteristic of an archetypal character is one in which all heroes contain a flaw that prevents them from moving on with their journey. In this story Odysseus contains other qualities such as arrogance, unfaithfulness, and stubbornness. With these qualities him and his crew are punished throughout the story. As in the epic, “will tell you. But you must give me a guest-gift as you've promised. Nobody—that's my name. Nobody— so my mother and father call me, all my friends.” Odysseus conceals...

Words: 421 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Willy Loman

...Willy Loman When one thinks of Willy Loman, victim is the last word that comes to mind. His character flaws make him responsible for his own misfortune. He has never taken responsibility for any of the disgraces in his life and has constantly blamed everyone, for not being able to live the life he feels he deserves. Some people are able to curb unrealistic expectations into something that is more tangible for them, while others such as Willy are not. Normally a salesman is someone who is able to accept their flaws and learn ways to improve, because this is how they make their living. Because Willy Loman never fully accepts his flaws, he has no way of progressing in life. He has reached the age where he can’t compete with the younger salesmen or keep up with the traveling that is required in order to be successful in his field. This is causing great strife in his life. The pride of a man can contribute to his life by being either a great asset or a ridiculous flaw. This trait is definitely a flaw for Willy Loman. Pride can assist you with taking control of your life and allow you to get what you think you deserve, however, it can also be crippling. This was the case for Willy. Pride kept him from talking to his boss earlier in his life as to why he needs to stop traveling and work from New York. Driving over 700 miles out of town just to come home empty handed would be too much for anyone, but it definitely weighs a toll on a 60 year old man. Once Biff decided he would stay...

Words: 1036 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Motor Learning Theory

...Jack A. Adams’ A Closed-Loop Theory Of Motor Learning attempts to explain the process of how motor learning is achieved in humans. He argues that a sufficient motor learning theory should cover how verbal and motor processes work together to produce learning and also how errors are detected and corrected. In this paper it will be shown that Adams fails to do this as there are numerous flaws incorporated into his argument. Adams tends to overlook necessary details and his theory fails to explain how motor learning is achieved in individuals who do not possess a “verbal capability”. The central components to Adams theory are the concepts of knowledge of results or KR, the perceptual trace, and the memory trace. In order to understand the flaws of Adams theory, a brief explanation of each is fundamental. According to Adams (1971,p. 122), KR is information about a movement’s error that is used to solve a problem. KR is the verbal component of Adams theory, which according to him, is key for motor learning to occur. Next, is his idea of the perceptual trace. According to Adams (1971, pg. 123) in order to move a limb, a reference of past movement is necessary (i.e. the perceptual trace), KR, and sensory feedback. The perceptual trace is almost the “memory” of past movement. It is weak in the beginning of a new movement, and strengthened as the number of correct trials increases. Adams asserts that KR is vital to forming a strong perceptual trace since KR gives information on...

Words: 918 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Leader

...a detailed analysis of some one’s life history in your own words in an acceptable manner by the audience. I presented the life history of an innovative leader who has revolutionised the entire electronic world and he is none other than Steve Jobs, who is well known as former CEO of Apple Company. I had a great opportunity to look at my presentation which enhances my knowledge how to be a good speaker and eventually to be a good leader. It is critical for a leader to have excellent communication skills to convey what he/she is thinking about visions or goals to his/her followers. When I watched my presentation video, I observed many flaws I had made and those are like turbulence in voice and broken sentences and it doesn’t mean that I am a bad speaker. I felt my speech was a good one but not good enough as an effective speaker. Considering the flaws I made, there is an...

Words: 1277 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Comparison of Lullaby by Hardy and Tis Pity She's a Whore -Ford

...Comparison between ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ Love often results in physical passion, and as time went on – the description and depth of passion have been more explicitly explored. In Lullaby, Auden presents a post coital situation, which is suggested by the title, as well as the phrase ‘sleeping head’, on the other hand the extract from Tis Pity She’s a Whore reaches its climax by the strong suggestions of consummation of the relationship of Annabella and Giovanni. Although the two differ in the timings of physical action, both of the writings offer language full of sexual as well as passionate connotations. Auden, illustrates the force of passion between him and his lover with ‘ Soul and body have no bounds’ as well as ‘ not a whisper, not a thought, not a kiss nor look be lost’. The repetition of ‘not’ in these two lines, might hint to a fact that the lovers need to savour every moment with each other in fear of a negative force. This phrase might hold a greater meaning as the tone of it suggests that the poet is torn between the reality and the kind of passion – still condemned in wider societies. The tone of illicit and sinful affair is set in Ford’s text as well, by the language such as ‘ suppressed the hidden flames’ where Ford uses natural imagery to present the sheer force of Giovanni’s passion, or Annabella’s ‘For every sigh thou hast spent for me, I have sighed ten’ crying back to her brother. In contrast with Auden’s poem Ford can not afford, in XVII century...

Words: 622 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Learning Habits

...Learning Habits One of the hardest things to do in life is to analyze or criticize yourself. A person can sit there and be able to criticize other people and pick out all the flaws, but when asked to analyze ones self, a person may find it difficult to find their own flaws. However, there are people out there that get paid to design test to help people see their flaws and help them analyze themselves. Though these test may not be one hundred percent perfect, they will give a person a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. After taking the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), the Inventory of Classroom Style and Skills (INCLASS), and the Center for Innovative Teaching Experiences (CITE), I was able to see my strengths and weaknesses in my study habits. Like I have stated before, these test are not one hundred percent perfect or correct. They are not designed to be that way; however, they are designed to give a person a better understanding of their study habits. After taking all the tests, I can say that I do not completely agree with the results that came out. But, before I pass judgment, lets take two thing into consideration: first off, I may not have been honest with myself in answering the questions, second, the test are scored on a percentile scale based on a collection of scores accumulated from people who have taken the tests before. After reviewing my test results, I find that I enjoy working with numbers. In my opinion, numbers are...

Words: 1030 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Pentium Flaw

...5 Analysis- Pentium Flaw NT1110 February 11, 2015 Instructor Sheila Pearson The Pentium flaw was when a segment among the Pentium CPU’s transistors performed division incorrectly. Engineers for Intel discovered the problem after the product was released in 1993 but they kept it hush hush and decided to fix the problem by using updates to the chip. A mathematician by the name of Thomas Nicely that worked for Lynchburg College in West Virginia also discovered the flaw. At first Grove, who was the CEO of Intel at the time, did not want to recall the product but when IBM got involved and made the announcement that they would not sell any computers that used that CPU chip, it forced Intel to do a recall that cost them about $475 million. In the beginning by keeping it quiet they were doing the wrong thing by trying to deceive the customer. By doing that they could have lost a lot of business from customers who might have felt that they were not trustworthy and were knowingly selling faulty products. But in the end they did the right thing and recalled the chips with the flaws in it which is the right thing to do. They decided to replace all flawed processors upon request and put aside a 420 million dollar budget to do so. They also hired hundreds of employees to specifically deal with customer requests. They placed four fulltime employees to read Internet newsgroups and respond to any and every question or remark about Intel’s products. If this same flaw was to happen today...

Words: 356 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

The Swoop List

...The story and real life differences are Pia getting raped page 35 paragraph 1. If I could change one situation in the story, I Really don't think I would. It makes the book more interesting, but if I really had to I would change the fact that Pia’s mom didn't believe her when she told her that her mom’s friend Jim was trying to rape her .I would change that because Pia was already raped and tried to harm herself and for her mom not to believe her that just a horrible experience for any girl of any age even males for that matter. My favorite thing said that could be used as a quote is “ Maybe the swoop list has been an eye-opener for all of us.I hate that any of us were on it, but atleast we got each other,and at least we now realize the flaws we’ve conquered. I’d give this novel a 10 go read it , it may help you with some things you may be going...

Words: 828 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Oedipus the King

...what he considered to be the perfect tragedy, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. According to Aristotle, a tragedy must be an imitation of life in the form of a serious story that is complete in itself. A good tragedy will evoke pity and fear in its viewers, causing the viewers to experience a feeling of catharsis. Catharsis, in Greek, means "purgation" or "purification"; running through the gamut of these strong emotions will leave viewers feeling elated, in the same way we often claim that "a good cry" will make one feel better.  Aristotle also outlined the characteristics of a good tragic hero. He must be "better than we are," a man who is superior to the average man in some way. In Oedipus's case, he is superior not only because of social standing, but also because he is smart ? he is the only person who could solve the Sphinx's riddle. At the same time, a tragic hero must evoke both pity and fear, and Aristotle claims that the best way to do this is if he is imperfect. A character with a mixture of good and evil is more compelling that a character who is merely good. And Oedipus is definitely not perfect; although a clever man, he is blind to the truth and refuses to believe Teiresias's warnings. Although he is a good father, he unwittingly fathered children in incest. A tragic hero suffers because of his hamartia, a Greek word that is often translated as "tragic flaw" but really means "error in judgement." Often this flaw or error has to do with fate ? a character tempts fate,...

Words: 1842 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Similarities Between Tragic Heroes

...Similarities between Tragic Heroes ​In tragedies, tragic heroes do not seem to be that much changed even though the date differs. Tragic heroes resemble each other in characteristics to lead to downfall of the hero. There are two main similarities between tragic heroes of the plays, Macbeth and Oedipus the King. In these plays, to stage a downfall of the heroes, the heroes are equipped with blindness and flaws. As to other similarities between the heroes of these two plays, Oedipus and Macbeth are both approached by a kind of seer and told of the things to pass. They both committed regicide and they both gained the throne by committing this crime even though the motive differs. ​Blindness, in other words the hero’s inability to understand his foreknown fate, is one of the main similarities between the two tragic heroes, Oedipus and Macbeth. In the case of Oedipus, blindness first shows itself in the case of regicide. In the plot, after Oedipus is told by a seer that he was going to kill his father, he tries to avoid his fate by running away but when he is confronted by a difficult situation he chooses to kill. This proves that he kills even though he knew he was going to kill his father. He is blinded to his fate although it is revealed to him. On the other hand, Macbeth’s blindness shows itself in the case of Macduff. Macbeth is foretold that he needs to beware of Macduff, he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman, and he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes...

Words: 630 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Role of Gods and Goddesses in Homer's Iliad

...borrowed from the medical writers of his day, which means a "refining" -- the viewer of a tragedy refines his or her sense of difficult ethical issues through a vicarious experious of such thorny problems. Clearly, for Aristotle's theory to work, the tragic hero must be a complex and well-constructed character, as in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. As a tragic hero, Oedipus elicits the three needed responses from the audience far better than most; indeed, Aristotle and subsequent critics have labeled Oedipus the ideal tragic hero. A careful examination of Oedipus and how he meets and exceeds the parameters of the tragic hero reveals that he legitimately deserves this title. Oedipus' nobility and virtue provide his first key to success as a tragic hero. Following Aristotle, the audience must respect the tragic hero as a "larger and better" version of themselves. The dynamic nature of Oedipus' nobility earns him this respect. First, as any Greek audience member would know, Oedipus is actually the son of Laius and Jocasta, the King and Queen of Thebes. Thus, he is a noble in the simplest sense; that is, his parents were themselves royalty. Second, Oedipus himself believes he is the son of...

Words: 845 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Fate In Oedipus The King

...ultimate control. In the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, Sophocles writes about a man who was the victim of such unfortunate fate. Some may argue that as a result of irrational anger and impulsiveness, Oedipus’ tragic flaws, in addition to other decisions he makes throughout the course of his life, Oedipus is a victim of his own hand. However, there are a number of other characters and situations that prove this theory wrong and demonstrate that Oedipus’ tragedy is ultimately a result of fate. Fate...

Words: 642 - Pages: 3