...Oedipus Is to Blame In Sophicle's Oedipus The King, Oedipus plays the lead character in the play. Oedipus plays blindfolded throughout the play. His character that he betrays is typical of those who honestly believe they have no part in the situation that occurs. I agree with Bernard Knox that Oedipus is responsible for the tragic outcome of the play. Oedipus's investigation of the death of King Laius is the reason for the tragic ending. The scene where Oedipus opens the investigation is the first step toward his downfall. Oedipus covers up the murder and is nervous when he hears the news. It is Oedipus's continuous effort to find the murderer. He wants to find the murderers of the king, not knowing that he is the murderer. Oedipus is the head investigator for the murder of King Laius. Even though he tells the people of Thebes that, "I am ready to help." He promises the people that he would do anything to find the murderers of Laius. Trying to seek all knowledge of the situation, Oedipus request the presence of the servant that was pardoned. The servant not knowing the request has arrived to give Oedipus some shocking news about his royal family. Oedipus, seeing his responsibility, demands anyone who knows about the murder to come forth. The City of Thebes is weak and powerless after the death of the king Laius. Oedipus says, "My spirit grieves for the city, for myself and all of you." If Oedipus had not...
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...In Sophicle's Oedipus The King, Oedipus plays the lead character in the play. Oedipus plays blindfolded throughout the play. His character that he betrays is typical of those who honestly believe they have no part in the situation that occurs. I agree with Bernard Knox that Oedipus is responsible for the tragic outcome of the play. Oedipus's investigation of the death of King Laius is the reason for the tragic ending. The scene where Oedipus opens the investigation is the first step toward his downfall. Oedipus covers up the murder and is nervous when he hears the news. It is Oedipus's continuous effort to find the murderer. He wants to find the murderers of the king, not knowing that he is the murderer. Oedipus is the head investigator for the murder of King Laius. Even though he tells the people of Thebes that, "I am ready to help." He promises the people that he would do anything to find the murderers of Laius. Trying to seek all knowledge of the situation, Oedipus request the presence of the servant that was pardoned. The servant not knowing the request has arrived to give Oedipus some shocking news about his royal family. Oedipus, seeing his responsibility, demands anyone who knows about the murder to come forth. The City of Thebes is weak and powerless after the death of the king Laius. Oedipus says, "My spirit grieves for the city, for myself and all of you." If Oedipus had not proceeded with the investigation no one would know anything...
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...hero. The character Oedipus eventually loses his respect and dignity for something so catastrophic and in consequence destroys Oedipus, who was once called a hero. In the end, though, the greatest tragedy can be said that Oedipus disgraces himself and his family for the killing of his father, marrying and or forcefully raping his mother, and being responsible for the downfall of his reign. One of the first examples of when you see Oedipus’s pride and ego get to him is when he actually has his father killed. Oedipus had sent his men to kill certain people objecting his rule, but unknowingly, has his father killed. Oedipus not really caring about the predetermined fate he is aware of, is...
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...knowledge was such an important aspect of life they had a divinity symbolize it. Apollo was the god of knowledge and medicine, in many Greek myths the quest for knowledge, or attaining too much knowledge altogether was a common source of tragedy. Ancient Greek cultures believed that even if mortals had the knowledge they sought, once they acquired it they did not know what to do with it. There are many examples in Greek myth that plainly show how knowledge eventually leads to tragedy. For instance, Oedipus’ search for knowledge of the king’s murderer ends up becoming his demise and the major source of pain in his life. Oedipus needed to find out why Thebes was suffering from a plague, so he sent Creon to the temple of Delphi to ask Apollo what he could do to life the plague from his people. As the oracle of Apollo Tiresias goes to Thebes and tells him that the person responsible for the death of the prior king, king Laius was living amongst them, and the plague would only be lifted once they found the murderer. In the quest for the knowledge that would save his people, King Oedipus summoned the messenger that was given the task of killing the newborn son of King Laius (in an attempt to escape the prophesy that would kill his father and wed his mother). Oedipus was angered by the messenger’s reluctance to answer his questions about the death of King Laius and threatened to kill him if he did not speak. Even though the messenger fearfully warns him that if Oedipus is who he thinks...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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