oedipus analysis essay

A Summary and Analysis of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The plot of Sophocles’ great tragedy Oedipus the King (sometimes known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannos ) has long been admired. In his Poetics , Aristotle held it up as the exemplary Greek tragedy . Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it one of the three perfect plots in all of literature (the other two being Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones ).

Oedipus the King might also be called the first detective story in Western literature. Yet how well do we know Sophocles’ play? And what does a closer analysis of its plot features and themes reveal?

The city of Thebes is in the grip of a terrible plague. The city’s king, Oedipus, sends Creon to consult the Delphic oracle, who announces that if the city rids itself of a murderer, the plague will disappear. The murderer in question is the unknown killer of the city’s previous king, Laius. Oedipus adopts a sort of detective role, and endeavours to sniff out the murderer.

He himself is plagued by another prophecy: that he would one day kill his father and marry his mother. He thinks he’s managed to thwart the prophecy by leaving home – and his parents – back in Corinth. On his way from Corinth to Thebes, he had an altercation with a man on the road: neither party would back down to let the other past, and Oedipus ended up killing the man in perhaps Western literature’s first instance of road rage.

Then Oedipus learns that his ‘father’ back in Corinth was not his biological parent: he was adopted after his ‘real’ parents left him for dead on a hillside, and he was rescued by a kindly shepherd who rescued him, took the child in, and raised him as his own. (The name Oedipus is Greek for ‘swollen foot’, from the chains put through the infant’s feet when it was left on the mountain.)

Tiresias the seer then reveals that the man Oedipus killed on the road was Laius – the former king of Thebes and (shock horror! Twist!) Oedipus’ biological father. Laius’ widow, Jocasta, is Oedipus’ own mother – and the woman Oedipus had married upon his arrival in Thebes.

When this terrible truth is revealed, Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus puts out his own eyes and leaves Thebes, going into self-imposed exile so he can free the Thebans from the plague.

This much constitutes a brief recap or summary of the plot of Oedipus the King . How we should interpret and analyse its use of prophecy and Oedipus’ own culpability, however, remains a less clear-cut matter. Is Oedipus to blame for what happens to him? Or is he simply a pawn of the gods and fates, to be used according to their whim?

Eventually, the nemesis can take no more and raises an army against Winter Kay. One of his soldiers, bearing a golden badge that resembles an eye in shape, is the one who kills Winter Kay in battle. In his dying moments, the hapless villain realises that, in seeking to avert the prophecy, he had, in fact, helped it to come true.

This is similar to the story of Oedipus the King . Oedipus heard the prophecy that he would one day murder his father and marry his mother, and so fled from his presumed parents so as to avoid fulfilling the prophecy. Such an act seems noble and it was jolly bad luck that fate had decreed that Oedipus would turn out to be a foundling and his real parents were still out there for him to bump into.

But what is clever about Sophocles’ dramatising of the myth is the way he introduces little details which reveal Oedipus’ character. The clues were already there that Oedipus was actually adopted: when he received the prophecy from the oracle, a drunk told him as much. But because the man was drunk, Oedipus didn’t believe him.

But, as the Latin phrase has it, in vino veritas . Then, it is Oedipus’ hubris, his pride, that contributes to the altercation on the road between him and Laius, the man who turns out to be his real father: if Oedipus was less stubborn, he would have played the bigger man and stepped aside to let Laius pass.

What does all this mean, when we stop and analyse it in terms of the interplay between fate and personal actions in Oedipus the King ? It means that Sophocles was aware of something which governs all our lives. Call it ‘karma’ if you will, or fate, but it works even if we remove the supernatural framework into which the action of Oedipus the King is placed.

Our actions have consequences, but that doesn’t mean that a particular action will lead to a particular consequence: it means that one action might cause something quite different to happen, which will nevertheless be linked in some way to our lives. A thief steals your wallet and you never see him, or your wallet, again. Did the criminal get away with it? Maybe.

Or maybe his habit of taking an intrusive interest in other people’s wallets will lead him, somewhere down the line, to getting what the ancient Greeks didn’t call ‘his comeuppance’. He wasn’t punished for pilfering your possessions, but he will nevertheless receive his just deserts.

Oedipus kills Laius because he is a stubborn and angry man; in his anger and pride, he allows himself to forget the prophecy (or to believe himself safe if he kills this man who definitely isn’t his father, no way ), and to kill another man. That one event will set in motion a chain of events that will see him married to his mother, the city over which he rules in the grip of plague, and – ultimately – Oedipus blinded and his wife/mother hanged.

Or perhaps that’s to impose a modern reading onto a classical text which Sophocles himself would not recognise. Yet works of art are always opening themselves up to new readings which see them reflecting our changing and evolving moral beliefs, and that is perhaps why Oedipus the King remains a great play to read, watch, analyse, and discuss. There remains something unsettling about its plot structure and its ambiguous meaning, and that is what lends it its power.

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7 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King”

Reblogged this on Writing hints and competitions and commented: Insight, the fate that launched a thousand clips

Wonderful analysis. Thank you. ~~dru~~

Thank you :)

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Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

Analysis of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 27, 2020 • ( 0 )

The place of the Oedipus Tyrannus in literature is something like that of the Mona Lisa in art. Everyone knows the story, the first detective story of Western literature; everyone who has read or seen it is drawn into its enigmas and moral dilemmas. It presents a kind of nightmare vision of a world suddenly turned upside down: a decent man discovers that he has unknowingly killed his father, married his mother, and sired children by her. It is a story that, as Aristotle says in the Poetics , makes one shudder with horror and feel pity just on hearing it. In Sophocles’ hands, however, this ancient tale becomes a profound meditation on the questions of guilt and responsibility, the order (or disorder) of our world, and the nature of man. The play stands with the Book of Job, Hamlet, and King Lear as one of Western literature’s most searching examinations of the problem of suffering.

—Charles Segal, Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge

No other drama has exerted a longer or stronger hold on the imagination than Sophocles’ Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus Rex ). Tragic drama that is centered on the dilemma of a single central character largely begins with Sophocles and is exemplified by his Oedipus, arguably the most influential play ever written. The most famous of all Greek dramas, Sophocles’ play, supported by Aristotle in the Poetics, set the standard by which tragedy has been measured for nearly two-and-a-half millennia. For Aristotle, Sophocles’ play featured the ideal tragic hero in Oedipus, a man of “great repute and good fortune,” whose fall, coming from his horrifying discovery that he has killed his father and married his mother, is masterfully arranged to elicit tragedy’s proper cathartic mixture of pity and terror. The play’s relentless exploration of human nature, destiny, and suffering turns an ancient tale of a man’s shocking history into one of the core human myths. Oedipus thereby joins a select group of fictional characters, including Odysseus, Faust, Don Juan, and Don Quixote, that have entered our collective consciousness as paradigms of humanity and the human condition. As classical scholar Bernard Knox has argued, “Sophocles’ Oedipus is not only the greatest creation of a major poet and the classic representative figure of his age: he is also one of a long series of tragic protagonists who stand as symbols of human aspiration and despair before the characteristic dilemma of Western civilization—the problem of man’s true stature, his proper place in the universe.”

For nearly 2,500 years Sophocles’ play has claimed consideration as drama’s most perfect and most profound achievement. Julius Caesar wrote an adaptation; Nero allegedly acted the part of the blind Oedipus. First staged in a European theater in 1585, Oedipus has been continually performed ever since and reworked by such dramatists as Pierre Corneille, John Dryden, Voltaire, William Butler Yeats, André Gide, and Jean Cocteau. The French neoclassical tragedian Jean Racine asserted that Oedipus was the ideal tragedy, while D. H. Lawrence regarded it as “the finest drama of all time.” Sigmund Freud discovered in the play the key to understanding man’s deepest and most repressed sexual and aggressive impulses, and the so-called Oedipus complex became one of the founding myths of psychoanalysis. Oedipus has served as a crucial mirror by which each subsequent era has been able to see its own reflection and its understanding of the mystery of human existence.

If Aeschylus is most often seen as the great originator of ancient Greek tragedy and Euripides is viewed as the great outsider and iconoclast, it is Sophocles who occupies the central position as classical tragedy’s technical master and the age’s representative figure over a lifetime that coincided with the rise and fall of Athens’s greatness as a political and cultural power in the fifth century b.c. Sophocles was born in 496 near Athens in Colonus, the legendary final resting place of the exiled Oedipus. At the age of 16, Sophocles, an accomplished dancer and lyre player, was selected to lead the celebration of the victory over the Persians at the battle of Salamis, the event that ushered in Athens’s golden age. He died in 406, two years before Athens’s fall to Sparta, which ended nearly a century of Athenian supremacy and cultural achievement. Very much at the center of Athenian public life, Sophocles served as a treasurer of state and a diplomat and was twice elected as a general. A lay priest in the cult of a local deity, Sophocles also founded a literary association and was an intimate of such prominent men of letters as Ion of Chios, Herodotus, and Archelaus. Urbane, garrulous, and witty, Sophocles was remembered fondly by his contemporaries as possessing all the admired qualities of balance and tranquillity. Nicknamed “the Bee” for his “honeyed” style of fl owing eloquence—the highest compliment the Greeks could bestow on a poet or speaker—Sophocles was regarded as the tragic Homer.

In marked contrast to his secure and stable public role and private life, Sophocles’ plays orchestrate a disturbing challenge to assurance and certainty by pitting vulnerable and fallible humanity against the inexorable forces of nature and destiny. Sophocles began his career as a playwright in 468 b.c. with a first-prize victory over Aeschylus in the Great, or City, Dionysia, the annual Athenian drama competition. Over the next 60 years he produced more than 120 plays (only seven have survived intact), winning first prize at the Dionysia 24 times and never earning less than second place, making him unquestionably the most successful and popular playwright of his time. It is Sophocles who introduced the third speaking actor to classical drama, creating the more complex dramatic situations and deepened psychological penetration through interpersonal relationships and dialogue. “Sophocles turned tragedy inward upon the principal actors,” classicist Richard Lattimore has observed, “and drama becomes drama of character.” Favoring dramatic action over narration, Sophocles brought offstage action onto the stage, emphasized dialogue rather than lengthy, undramatic monologues, and purportedly introduced painted scenery. Also of note, Sophocles replaced the connected trilogies of Aeschylus with self-contained plays on different subjects at the same contest, establishing the norm that has continued in Western drama with its emphasis on the intensity and unity of dramatic action. At their core, Sophocles’ tragedies are essentially moral and religious dramas pitting the tragic hero against unalterable fate as defined by universal laws, particular circumstances, and individual temperament. By testing his characters so severely, Sophocles orchestrated adversity into revelations that continue to evoke an audience’s capacity for wonder and compassion.

The story of Oedipus was part of a Theban cycle of legends that was second only to the stories surrounding the Trojan War as a popular subject for Greek literary treatment. Thirteen different Greek dramatists, including Aeschylus and Euripides, are known to have written plays on the subject of Oedipus and his progeny. Sophocles’ great innovation was to turn Oedipus’s horrifying circumstances into a drama of self-discovery that probes the mystery of selfhood and human destiny.

The play opens with Oedipus secure and respected as the capable ruler of Thebes having solved the riddle of the Sphinx and gained the throne and Thebes’s widowed queen, Jocasta, as his reward. Plague now besets the city, and Oedipus comes to Thebes’s rescue once again when, after learning from the oracle of Apollo that the plague is a punishment for the murder of his predecessor, Laius, he swears to discover and bring the murderer to justice. The play, therefore, begins as a detective story, with the key question “Who killed Laius?” as the initial mystery. Oedipus initiates the first in a seemingly inexhaustible series of dramatic ironies as the detective who turns out to be his own quarry. Oedipus’s judgment of banishment for Laius’s murderer seals his own fate. Pledged to restore Thebes to health, Oedipus is in fact the source of its affliction. Oedipus’s success in discovering Laius’s murderer will be his own undoing, and the seemingly percipient, riddle-solving Oedipus will only see the truth about himself when he is blind. To underscore this point, the blind seer Teiresias is summoned. He is reluctant to tell what he knows, but Oedipus is adamant: “No man, no place, nothing will escape my gaze. / I will not stop until I know it all.” Finally goaded by Oedipus to reveal that Oedipus himself is “the killer you’re searching for” and the plague that afflicts Thebes, Teiresias introduces the play’s second mystery, “Who is Oedipus?”

You have eyes to see with, But you do not see yourself, you do not see The horror shadowing every step of your life, . . . Who are your father and mother? Can you tell me?

Oedipus rejects Teiresias’s horrifying answer to this question—that Oedipus has killed his own father and has become a “sower of seed where your father has sowed”—as part of a conspiracy with Jocasta’s brother Creon against his rule. In his treatment of Teiresias and his subsequent condemning of Creon to death, Oedipus exposes his pride, wrath, and rush to judgment, character flaws that alloy his evident strengths of relentless determination to learn the truth and fortitude in bearing the consequences. Jocasta comes to her brother’s defense, while arguing that not all oracles can be believed. By relating the circumstances of Laius’s death, Jocasta attempts to demonstrate that Oedipus could not be the murderer while ironically providing Oedipus with the details that help to prove the case of his culpability. In what is a marvel of ironic plot construction, each step forward in answering the questions surrounding the murder and Oedipus’s parentage takes Oedipus a step back in time toward full disclosure and self-discovery.

As Oedipus is made to shift from self-righteous authority to doubt, a messenger from Corinth arrives with news that Oedipus’s supposed father, Poly-bus, is dead. This intelligence seems again to disprove the oracle that Oedipus is fated to kill his father. Oedipus, however, still is reluctant to return home for fear that he could still marry his mother. To relieve Oedipus’s anxiety, the messenger reveals that he himself brought Oedipus as an infant to Polybus. Like Jocasta whose evidence in support of Oedipus’s innocence turns into confirmation of his guilt, the messenger provides intelligence that will connect Oedipus to both Laius and Jocasta as their son and as his father’s killer. The messenger’s intelligence produces the crucial recognition for Jocasta, who urges Oedipus to cease any further inquiry. Oedipus, however, persists, summoning the herdsman who gave the infant to the messenger and was coincidentally the sole survivor of the attack on Laius. The herdsman’s eventual confirmation of both the facts of Oedipus’s birth and Laius’s murder produces the play’s staggering climax. Aristotle would cite Sophocles’ simultaneous con-junction of Oedipus’s recognition of his identity and guilt with his reversal of fortune—condemned by his own words to banishment and exile as Laius’s murderer—as the ideal artful arrangement of a drama’s plot to produce the desired cathartic pity and terror.

The play concludes with an emphasis on what Oedipus will now do after he knows the truth. No tragic hero has fallen further or faster than in the real time of Sophocles’ drama in which the time elapsed in the play coincides with the performance time. Oedipus is stripped of every illusion of his authority, control, righteousness, and past wisdom and is forced to contend with a shame that is impossible to expiate—patricide and incestual relations with his mother—in a world lacking either justice or alleviation from suffering. Oedipus’s heroic grandeur, however, grows in his diminishment. Fundamentally a victim of circumstances, innocent of intentional sin whose fate was preordained before his birth, Oedipus refuses the consolation of blamelessness that victimization confers, accepting in full his guilt and self-imposed sentence as an outcast, criminal, and sinner. He blinds himself to confirm the moral shame that his actions, unwittingly or not, have provoked. It is Oedipus’s capacity to endure the revelation of his sin, his nature, and his fate that dominates the play’s conclusion. Oedipus’s greatest strengths—his determination to know the truth and to accept what he learns—sets him apart as one of the most pitiable and admired of tragic heroes. “The closing note of the tragedy,” Knox argues, “is a renewed insistence on the heroic nature of Oedipus; the play ends as it began, with the greatness of the hero. But it is a different kind of greatness. It is now based on knowledge, not, as before on ignorance.” The now-blinded Oedipus has been forced to see and experience the impermanence of good fortune, the reality of unimaginable moral shame, and a cosmic order that is either perverse in its calculated cruelty or chaotically random in its designs, in either case defeating any human need for justice and mercy.

The Chorus summarizes the harsh lesson of heroic defeat that the play so majestically dramatizes:

Look and learn all citizens of Thebes. This is Oedipus. He, who read the famous riddle, and we hailed chief of men, All envied his power, glory, and good fortune. Now upon his head the sea of disaster crashes down. Mortality is man’s burden. Keep your eyes fixed on your last day. Call no man happy until he reaches it, and finds rest from suffering.

Few plays have dealt so unflinchingly with existential truths or have as bravely defined human heroism in the capacity to see, suffer, and endure.

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Oedipus the King

Table of contents.

Tiresias says to Oedipus, “Creon is not your downfall, no, you are your own.” What is the extent of Oedipus’ guilt in his own downfall?

“Oedipus the King demonstrates that the quest for truth only leads to self-destruction.” Discuss.
What does the play have to say about fate and free will?
“The play is about Oedipus’ search for his identity.” Discuss.
“What should a man fear? It’s all about chance, / chance rules our lives.” Discuss Jocasta’s philosophy about life.
Discuss the dual role of the Chorus.
What do the choral odes have to say about the relationship between humans and the gods?
What are Oedipus’ feelings about family?
Evidence Bank

Oedipus the King is a classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles about the downfall of Oedipus, a heroic yet ill-fated character who was prophesied to slay his father and marry his mother. Oedipus finds himself caught in a dilemma between his determination to unwind the tangled threads of his history, or avoid undermining everything he knows about his life. The premise of the ancient play reminds audiences of the cruel nature of fate and the importance of making good decisions. Yet Oedipus himself is a complex character who does his best to exercise free choice within the restraints of his fate, which lends itself to the argument surrounding the extent of his guilt in his eventual downfall. To a large extent, Oedipus is responsible for his horrible actions that drive him to fulfil the prophecy given to him at birth, such as his violent nature which drives him to slay his father, as well as his incessant drive to seek the truth about himself. Yet as the ancient Greeks would have it, despite taking extensive manoeuvres to avoid his terrible future, Oedipus may have been a prisoner of his own fate and thus remain guiltless.

Oedipus the King, a timeless Greek tragedy penned by Sophocles, unfolds the tragic descent of Oedipus, a heroic figure ensnared in the ominous prophecy of patricide and matrimony with his mother/incest. Confronted with the formidable choice between unraveling the intricacies of his lineage and preserving the foundation of his perceived reality, Oedipus grapples with a profound dilemma. The narrative serves as a poignant reminder of the inexorable cruelty of destiny and the consequential significance of judicious decision-making.Oedipus, a character of intricate depth, endeavors to wield volition amidst the constricting threads of his foretold destiny, thereby fueling debates about the degree of culpability in his eventual downfall. While Oedipus bears considerable responsibility for the grievous deeds that propel him toward the fulfillment of his preordained fate—such as his proclivity for violence leading to the slaying of his parents—he also exhibits an unwavering determination to unveil the veracity of his existence.Yet, adhering to the ancient Greek ethos, Oedipus, despite his concerted efforts to circumvent the ominous prophecy, remains ensnared in the inexorable web of fate, prompting contemplation about his potential innocence. In essence, Oedipus, despite his extensive manoeuvres to avert a calamitous destiny, emerges as a captive of his predetermined path, thereby challenging conventional notions of guilt and culpability.

Oedipus’ violent and aggressive nature, as shown by his various impulsive actions, can be said to be a defining factor which led him to the actions of his downfall. Even considering the audience’s knowledge of his horrible fate, there is no question that his nature lends itself to his questionable actions. For example, Oedipus testifies to Jocasta that the man he killed, Laius, was “accompanied by a herald”, thus announcing to the world that he was a king. Yet Oedipus, despite having been raised as royalty himself, does not hold himself back in the slaughter of Laius, the herald, and multiple others. This can be interpreted in several ways: either his impulsivity and pride led him to rashly kill Laius and his followers, thus cementing his guilt in his own fate, or that the threads of fate led him to make that decision in that moment. Either way, there is little doubt that it was simply part of Oedipus’ nature, as there is little other justification for his violent actions. In a similar way, his dogged determination to uncover the truth of his past turns him hostile and abusive, revealing his hubris; when Tiresias does tell him the truth about what he seeks, he does not listen as he is consumed by paranoia. His aberrant character flaws are thus determinant of his guilt in his own downfall.

Oedipus’ propensity for violence and aggression, manifested through impulsive actions, emerges as a pivotal factor contributing to his eventual downfall. Despite the audience’s awareness of his inexorable fate, there is an unequivocal acknowledgment that his inherent nature propels him towards morally ambiguous deeds. Notably, Oedipus, while recounting to Jocasta the slaying of Laius, explicitly highlights the regal stature of his victim, accompanied by a herald. Paradoxically, even though Oedipus himself was nurtured in royal surroundings, he fails to restrain his carnage, perpetrating the ruthless murder of Laius, the herald, and others. This dichotomy invites interpretations that either his impetuosity and pride precipitated the hasty annihilation, cementing his culpability in his tragic destiny, or that the inexorable threads of fate coerced him into that fateful decision.Moreover, Oedipus’ unwavering commitment to unraveling the truth of his origins transforms him into a hostile and abusive figure, laying bare the depths of his hubris. When Tiresias imparts the veracious revelation he seeks, Oedipus, ensnared by paranoia, remains deaf to reason. His anomalous character flaws thus serve as decisive elements substantiating his complicity in the tragic unraveling of his own fate.

In addition to his violent nature, Oedipus’ incessant seeking of the truth also leads him to his downfall. As the play opens, the audience learns that Oedipus is at the height of his success, as he had already become a great ruler of Thebes, revered by many for “defeating the Sphinx”. This only lends itself to demonstrate the great downfall that he will face at the hands of his own curiosity. Later, when Jocasta tells the tale of Laius’ death to Oedipus, he begins to doubt himself, in that he is indeed the murderer he is seeking. However, despite understanding the consequences, this does nothing to stop the momentum of his investigation. Oedipus refuses to consider Jocasta’s advice that he “live at random, best we can” and according to chance. Instead, he is so fixated on getting to the bottom of the truth by calling for the old shepherd who saved him when he was a baby. Oedipus is aware of the consequences, that “if he refers to one man, one alone, / clearly the scales come down on me: / I am guilty”. Even as the shepherd, like Tiresias, demonstrates reluctance to tell Oedipus what he knows, he insists that the truth must come out. Moreover, when Jocasta collapses in despair, Oedipus remains fervent in his determination to discover his true identity, proclaiming that “I must know it all, / must see the truth at last”. In the end, it is this unwavering confidence and determination for the truth that ultimately leads him to his downfall.

However, despite these interpretations, it can also be said that Oedipus was merely a prisoner of his own fate, indicating that all the questionable actions he took were merely part of his destiny, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it. Through this interpretation, Oedipus is guiltless as there was no way to avoid his fate. Many attempts to avoid Oedipus’ tragic fate appear in the play, yet he still fulfilled it regardless. Jocasta and Laius cast him out as a mere infant; Oedipus exiles himself from his adopted parents in fear that ill would befall them (and not his birth parents). Yet it is fate that drives him towards Thebes and to the crossroads where he slew Laius, where there was no reason to kill Laius, but he was driven to do so anyway. Fate rewards him cruelly with Jocasta as a wife after besting the Sphinx. Lastly, fate drives him to pursue the truth of his past, driving home the final punishment of exile and blindness set by himself. There appeared the illusion of free will in his choices, but Oedipus was ultimately driven to make horrible choices which resulted in the fulfillment of the prophecy. Hence, Sophocles presents the cruel reality that even though characters may take extensive manoeuvres to avoid committing the crimes of their fate, they will be compelled to commit abhorrent acts in order to fulfill their destinies.

Overall, Oedipus himself is a complex character: the extent of his guilt depends on how much the audience places value on his personal choices or the prison of his fate. It is true that his nature lends itself to the interpretation of his own guilt in his actions. However, given the context of ancient Greece where individuals were commonly understood to be prisoner of their own fate, there may have been no way for him to avoid the consequences. Hence, while Oedipus was ill-fated from birth, Sophocles aimed to imbue audiences with the moral that one’s choices are highly important to the outcome of their lives.

“ Oedipus the King demonstrates that the quest for truth only leads to self-destruction. ” Discuss.

Oedipus the King – Sophocles – Oedipus Rex Analysis, Summary, Story

(tragedy, greek, c. 429 bce, 1,530 lines).

Introduction | Synopsis | Analysis | Resources

“ Oedipus the King ” (Gr: “ Oidipous Tyrannos ” ; Lat: “ Oedipus Rex ” ) is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles , first performed in about 429 BCE . It was the second of Sophocles ‘ three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology (followed by “Oedipus at Colonus” and then “Antigone” ).

It follows the story of King Oedipus of Thebes as he discovers that he has unwittingly killed his own father, Laius, and married his own mother, Jocasta . Over the centuries, it has come to be regarded by many as the Greek tragedy par excellence and certainly as the summit of Sophocles ’ achievements.

To briefly recap on the background to the play:

Shortly after Oedipus ’ birth , his father, King Laius of Thebes, learned from an oracle that he, Laius, was doomed to perish by the hand of his own son , and so ordered his wife Jocasta to kill the infant.

However, neither she nor her servant could bring themselves to kill him and he was abandoned to elements . There he was found and brought up by a shepherd, before being taken in and raised in the court of the childless King Polybus of Corinth as if he were his own son.

Stung by rumours that he was not the biological son of the king, Oedipus consulted an oracle which foretold that he would marry his own mother and kill his own father. Desperate to avoid this foretold fate, and believing Polybus and Merope to be his true parents, Oedipus left Corinth . On the road to Thebes, he met Laius, his real father, and, unaware of each other’s true identities, they quarrelled and Oedipus ‘ pride led him to murder Laius, fulfilling part of the oracle’s prophecy. Later, he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and his reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx’s curse was the hand of Queen Jocasta (actually his biological mother) and the crown of the city of Thebes. The prophecy was thus fulfilled , although none of the main characters were aware of it at this point.

As the play opens , a priest and the Chorus of Theban elders are calling on King Oedipus to aid them with the plague which has been sent by Apollo to ravage the city. Oedipus has already sent Creon , his brother-in-law, to consult the oracle at Delphi on the matter, and when Creon returns at that very moment, he reports that the plague will only end when the murderer of their former king, Laius, is caught and brought to justice. Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused.

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Oedipus also summons the blind prophet Tiresias , who claims to know the answers to Oedipus ‘ questions, but refuses to speak, lamenting his ability to see the truth when the truth brings nothing but pain. He advises Oedipus to abandon his search but, when the enraged Oedipus accuses Tiresias of complicity in the murder, Tiresias is provoked into telling the king the truth, that he himself is the murderer. Oedipus dismisses this as nonsense, accusing the prophet of being corrupted by the ambitious Creon in an attempt to undermine him, and Tiresias leaves, putting forth one last riddle: that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife.

Oedipus demands that Creon be executed, convinced that he is conspiring against him, and only the intervention of the Chorus persuades him to let Creon live. Oedipus ‘ wife Jocasta tells him he should take no notice of prophets and oracles anyway because, many years ago, she and Laius received an oracle which never came true. This prophecy said that Laius would be killed by his own son but, as everyone knows, Laius was actually killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi. The mention of crossroads causes Oedipus to give pause and he suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias ‘ accusations may actually have been true.

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The messenger turns out to be the very shepherd who had looked after an abandoned child, which he later took to Corinth and gave up to King Polybus for adoption. He is also the very same shepherd who witnessed the murder of Laius. By now, Jocasta is beginning to realize the truth, and desperately begs Oedipus to stop asking questions. But Oedipus presses the shepherd, threatening him with torture or execution, until it finally emerges that the child he gave away was Laius’ own son , and that Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be exposed upon the mountainside, in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had never come true: that the child would kill its father.

With all now finally revealed , Oedipus curses himself and his tragic destiny and stumbles off, as the Chorus laments how even a great man can be felled by fate. A servant enters and explains that Jocasta , when she had begun to suspect the truth, had ran to the palace bedroom and hanged herself there. Oedipus enters, deliriously calling for a sword so that he might kill himself and raging through the house until he comes upon Jocasta ‘s body. In final despair, Oedipus takes two long gold pins from her dress, and plunges them into his own eyes.

Now blind, Oedipus begs to be exiled as soon as possible , and asks Creon to look after his two daughters, Antigone and Ismene , lamenting that they should have been born into such a cursed family. Creon counsels that Oedipus should be kept in the palace until oracles can be consulted regarding what is best to be done, and the play ends as the Chorus wails : ‘Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last’ .

The play follows one chapter (the most dramatic one) in the life of Oedipus , King of Thebes , who lived about a generation before the events of the Trojan War, namely his gradual realization that he has killed his own father, Laius, and committed incest with his own mother, Jocasta . It assumes a certain amount of background knowledge of his story, which Greek audiences would have known well, although much of the background is also explained as the action unfolds.

oedipus the king play, oedipus the king author, oedipus the king essay

“Oedipus the King” is structured as a prologue and five episodes , each introduced by a choral ode . Each of the incidents in the play is part of a tightly constructed cause-and-effect chain, assembled together as an investigation of the past, and the play is considered a marvel of plot structure. Part of the tremendous sense of inevitability and fate in the play stems from the fact that all the irrational things have already occurred and are therefore unalterable.

The main themes of the play are: fate and free will (the inevitability of oracular predictions is a theme that often occurs in Greek tragedies); the conflict between the individual and the state (similar to that in Sophocles ’ “Antigone” ); people’s willingness to ignore painful truths (both Oedipus and Jocasta clutch at unlikely details in order to avoiding facing up to the inceasingly apparent truth); and sight and blindness (the irony that the blind seer Tiresius can actually “see” more clearly than the supposedly clear-eyed Oedipus , who is in reality blind to the truth about his origins and his inadvertent crimes).

Sophocles makes good use of dramatic irony in “Oedipus the King” . For example: the people of Thebes come to Oedipus at the start of the play, asking him to rid the city of the plague, when in reality, it is he who is the cause; Oedipus curses the murderer of Laius out of a deep anger at not being able to find him, actually cursing himself in he process; he insults Tiresius ’ blindness when he is the one who actually lacks vision, and will soon himself be blind; and he rejoices in the news of the death of King Polybus of Corinth, when this new information is what actually brings the tragic prophecy to light.

English translation by F. Storr (Internet Classics Archive): http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html
Greek version with word-by-word translation (Perseus Project): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0191

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Oedipus Rex

Introduction.

Oedipus Rex is a famous tragedy written by Sophocles. It is also known by its Greek name “Oedipus Tyrannus” or “Oedipus the king”. It was first performed in 429 BC. Sophocles is now placed among the great ancient Greek Tragedians. He wrote three famous tragedies that include Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone that describe the sufferings of a king and his children after him.

Definition of a tragedy

Oedipus rex summary.

The play starts outside the palace of King Oedipus. The city of Thebes is shown suffering a plague because of which people are terrified. The fields become barren and people start suffering from different diseases. The people of Thebes gather along with a priest and other elders to request Oedipus, the king of Thebes, to help them and save them from this plague. They come to the king to ask for help because he saved them once from the sphinx too. The sphinx was a monster with the woman’s head, lioness’ body, eagle’s wings and serpent’s tale.

Oedipus appreciates the chorus for their prayers. Oedipus then addresses to all the people and forbids them to give shelter to the murderer of king Laius. He also announces that if the murderer is present in the crowd, he can come forward and admit his crime. However, he promises not to kill the person if he comes forward to surrender and he only suggests banishment for him. The chorus suggests Oedipus to call Teiresias, the blind prophet, to resolve this matter. Oedipus tells them that he has already sent someone to call him.

Jocasta and Oedipus feel relief on this news. Jocasta becomes happy and tells Oedipus that this is another proof that proves the prophecies wrong. Oedipus believes her but he tells her that he is still worried about the other prophecy that he will marry his mother. The messenger tells Oedipus that now he doesn’t need to stay away from his home, Corinth. He tells him that he can come back any time without any fear because his mother, Merope, is not his real mother and Polybus was not his real father either.

Finally, Oedipus’ men come with a shepherd. Seeing the terrible condition of Jocasta, the chorus also starts thinking that something bad is going to happen so they also start begging Oedipus to leave the mystery unsolved but Oedipus doesn’t listen to them either. The shepherd looks terrified and doesn’t want to answer the king’s question. Oedipus forces him to tell the truth. He tells Oedipus it is true that he gave a baby boy to another shepherd. He admits that the baby was king Laius’ son whom Jocasta and Laius left to die on a hillside because they were terrified of an oracle’s prophecy.

Creon also enters the palace after hearing the whole story. He consoles Oedipus and asks him to come inside so that no one can see him. Oedipus also begs Creon to let him leave the city but he suggests meeting Apollo first. Oedipus refuses to meet anyone. Oedipus says that the only punishment for the sinner is banishment. He requests Creon to bring his daughters to him as he wants to meet them before leaving. He also asks Creon to take care of them.

Themes in Oedipus Rex

It is the main theme of this play and fate plays an important role in the whole play. When king Laius and queen Jocasta hear the prophecy that their son will kill his father and marry his mother, they leave their son to die but the child doesn’t die and is taken to Corinth. When Oedipus grows up, he also comes to know about this prophecy so he leaves that place but he doesn’t know that his fate is taking him towards his real parents. No matter how hard he tries to escape his fate, he does the same as was written. The role of fate remains prominent in the play and in the end, Oedipus finds that he is only a puppet in the hands of gods and prophets.

Individual will/action

Pity and fear, plague and health, self-discovery and memories of the past, search for truth.

Oedipus promises people to find out the truth and punish the culprit so he starts his search. Many people request him to stop his search but he doesn’t listen to them. Teiresias begs him not to ask him about the truth because it will only bring pain to everyone. He forces him to speak. Later when things start to become clear, Jocasta also requests Oedipus to stop finding the truth but he doesn’t listen to her either. Then he finds out the bitter truth and ends up punishing himself.

Guilt and Shame

Blind faith, oedipus rex characters analysis.

Creon remains a loyal friend to Oedipus. He even forgives him when he accuses him of treason and gives the order to execute him. He claims that he never thought of turning against Oedipus. In every decision about the city of Thebes, he shares an equal part as Oedipus and Jocasta. At the end of the play, when Oedipus requests him to let him leave the city, he tells him that they should go to the oracle first but Oedipus doesn’t agree. Creon brings the daughters of Oedipus to meet their father for the last time according to his will and he also promises Oedipus to take care of them after him. Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes after king Oedipus.

Teiresias then leaves the palace saying his last riddle. He tells that the murderer is in front of them, he is the killer of his father and the husband of his mother, he is the brother of his own children and the son of his own wife, a man who came seeing but will leave this world in blindness. His prophecy proves to be true at the end of the novel when the truth gets revealed in front of everyone and Oedipus blinds himself.

A chorus is a group of singers that includes the elder citizens of Thebes. As the play starts, they come to Oedipus along with a priest to request the king to save their city from the plague. They become satisfied as the king assures them that he will save them from the trouble. The chorus plays an important role in the play. They sing choral odes after every scene that helps to connect different scenes of the play. Moreover, their choral odes add to the beauty of the play and entertain the readers.

The chorus also prays to different gods to save their city from the plague. They forbid the king to take any strict decision against Creon and stop him from executing Creon. When the truth starts revealing, they also try to stop the king to stop his search for truth because they also start feeling that something wrong is going to happen. In the end, they lament on the king’s fate and the play ends when the Chorus says, “Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last”.

Antigone and Ismene

The messenger from corinth.

Oedipus gets shocked on hearing this news and asks him who told him about this. He tells Oedipus that years ago someone from Thebes gave him a child as a gift and he presented it to the king and queen of Corinth as they had no children of their own. Oedipus further asks him about the person who gave him the child. He tells Oedipus that he was one of Laius’ servants. He also helped Oedipus in recognizing the servant.

The Herdsman

The herdsman is the person who gave the child of king Laius and queen Jocasta to the messenger of Corinth on their orders. He is also the witness of king Laius’ death. Initially, he lied to everyone that king Laius was murdered by some robbers but later when king Oedipus calls him in his palace and forces him to speak the truth, he tells that he witnessed the killer of King Laius and he is Oedipus.

The Second Messenger

Oedipus rex literary analysis.

“Oedipus Rex” is a classical work in which Sophocles has skillfully shown a straightforward interpretation of a Greek myth. Throughout the play, the use of dramatic irony makes this play a great success and masterpiece. The play discusses how fate plays its part in the life of the characters. The main character tries hard to escape his fate but in his effort to run away from it, he actually comes nearer to what gods have decided for him and ends up doing what already was prophecized.

Title of the play

Setting of the play, ending of the play.

He leaves the city as he himself announced banishment as a punishment for the criminal. Now he wins the hearts of people again and becomes the real hero at the end. Creon treats him gently forgetting about what he did to him and takes the charge of Thebes afterwards.

Writing style

Plot analysis, initial situation , conflict , complication.

Oedipus starts realizing that he has some link with the murder of Laius. The more he learns about the truth, the more he shows interest to solve this mystery. As he comes close to the truth, he hurts no one but himself in the entire process.

The three unities in Oedipus Rex

Unity of action, unity of place.

“Oedipus Rex” also follows the unity of action as the whole play occurs at a single place. The play is restricted to a single location that is in front of the king’s palace in the city of Thebes.

Unity of Time

Three act plot analysis.

Oedipus knows that the city is cursed so he sends Creon to an oracle to find out the solution. Creon tells that the only solution to lift the plague is to find the murderer of King Laius and punish him. Oedipus promises people to find the culprit and save them from trouble.

Oedipus investigates Jocasta, Teiresias, the messenger and the shepherd to know about King Laius’ murderer. Slowly he starts solving the mystery.

Analysis of the Literary Devices used in Oedipus Rex

Dramatic irony.

One example of the dramatic irony is that throughout the play Oedipus struggles to find the murderer of King Laius but in reality, he himself murdered his father and then he searches for the murderer here and there. The irony here is that he searches for himself.

The scars on Oedipus’ feet

When Oedipus was three days old, an oracle told his father, King Laius, that the child will kill his father in the future and then he will marry his mother. King Laius bound his feet by a pin due to which they got swollen and later some scars were left on them. The scars on his feet are symbolic. They symbolize that Oedipus was marked for all the sufferings right from the time of his birth. These scars are also ironic. Although the name of Oedipus clearly points towards his feet, still he fails to discover his true identity.

The Crossroads

Oedipus killed a stranger at a place where three roads met. Unknowingly he killed his father. Sophocles made the point of murder unique. Oedipus’ fate followed him. The three roads actually symbolize the choices that a person has while making any decision. In the play, the three roads symbolize the choice or the path that Oedipus could have taken instead of killing a man just because of his short temperament. The three roads also symbolize the present, past and future. It is said that the Greek Goddess of the crossroads had 3 heads. One head could see the past, one the present and one the future.

Eyes, Vision and Blindness

Study Guide

Sophocles Biography

Teaching Resources

Oedipus the King Lesson Plan
Oedipus the King Teaching Guide

Oedipus the King by Sophocles Literature Analysis Essay

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Oedipus is swift and confident throughout the play. He cross-examines Creon, asks for Tiresias, makes threats about sending Creon and Tiresias to exile, asks to see the servant who ran off from the assault on Laius, and finally requests to be banished. He is always in motion, apparently chasing his fate although it goes out of his control. Despite the fact that his fate was doomed from the beginning when his mother abandoned him, his aggressiveness lands him in great trouble. It leads him to his tragic end.

Oedipus is not morally at fault. In fact, he attempts to find out who killed Polybus, as he sees it as injustice. The closer he gets to the truth, the bitter the reality of his dreadful fate unveils. The junction where Laius was murdered is the same spot where Oedipus had killed somebody on the same day.

A prophecy was also given to him stating how he would do unspeakable things, “You are fated to be a couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into light no man can bear to see-you will kill your father, the one who you will life!” (Sylvan, William and William 1321).

Oedipus is not morally at fault because he flees from Corinth as he does not want the prophecy to be fulfilled. In other words, he cannot bear the thought of killing his own father, or marrying his mother. It is therefore very difficult to say that Oedipus was at fault or that he was foolish because he appears to have no alternative, but to fulfill the prophecy.

His judgment is not flawed because all he wanted was justice. It was a harsh judgment though. He did not know that his judgment will be his downfall. His mother pleads with him to leave the matter of Laius’ death and focus on the future but he insists on finding out who killed Laius.

He asks people of Thebes to give him any valuable information regarding the death of the king. He promises them that the murderer will be killed or sent to exile not knowing that he was judging himself, and proclaiming to his own damage: “Now my curse on the murderer.

Whoever he is, a lone man unknown in his crime or one among many, let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step-I curse myself as well…if by any chance He proves to be an intimate of our house, Here at my heart, with my full knowledge, May the curse I just called down on him strike me!” (1307).

Oedipus is not at fault. He does not willingly kill his father or marry his own mother. He persistently searches for the truth in the attempt of altering his fate. This is the mistake he made as this search made his life full of agony. This search also exposed those he loved to astonishing fates. Oedipus lived his life with no hope for the future. He had no joy. After finding out about all his unfortunate fate, there was nothing more but to await his death.

The results of the sorrowful events that took place in the life of Oedipus caused him a lot of pain, hatred, and regret. These events are too overwhelming for the queen that she commits suicide in the end. Oedipus cannot take the sorrow any more on seeing his mother and wife dying; he blinds himself by stubbing his eyes with some pins that he pulled from his mother’s clothes.

This made him unable to see his children. His weakness contributed to his exile. He is weak to the extent that instead of trying to solve his problems and living with them, he opts to destroy his life and those of his daughters as they cannot get married. This is where his weakness is traced.

When Oedipus was born, his mother decided on his fatal destiny. At this point, it can be seen that his life was taken out of his control right after he was born. He is not lucky as his mother gives him out to an empire nearby, where he is raised as one of their own.

As he grew up, a prophesy was given that he would murder his own father and sleep with his mother, and give birth to children that would not be pleasing to look at “Revealed at last, brother and father both to the children he embraces, to his mother son and husband both- he sowed the loins his father sowed, he spilled his father’s blood “(1313).

On fear of this prophesies coming to pass, he runs to Corinth. He became king in Thebes inheriting the previous king’s wife. Together they had children. Not knowing he had killed his father, Laius, and married his wife being his mother. He had cursed himself when he asserted that he would seek revenge for Laius’s murderer. He went on further to promise to sacrifice his own future if Laius’ murderer was a member of Thebes’ empire.

It is evident in the play that man has no power over his fate. Oedipus tries to run away from his fate, but it still gets hold of him. Oedipus’ flaw cannot be clearly pointed out. The play simply implies that tragedies and errors can befall anybody, and that man has no power before the gods.

Laius tries all he can to prevent the prophecy he was told; that he would be killed by his son. When his wife Jocasta bore him a son, Laius and his wife gave him up to a servant and told the servant to take the child to Mt. Cithaeron, and leave him to die. However, the servant did not obey the instructions and instead, gave the child to a shepherd from Corinth, who took the child to his king and queen.

He grew up in Corinth, and later killed his father, ignorant that he had killed his own flesh and blood. Either way, Apollo’s oracle came to pass despite the attempts of Laius and his wife to kill their son so as to break the fate that had been predicted by the oracle.

It is clear that the events that resulted in misfortune in the lives of Jocasta, Oedipus, and Laius are as a result of the supernatural oracle, which is the work of the gods. This oracle had predicted these events in advance, and they were aware of it.

They tried to prevent these misfortunes from taking place by taking different measures, but the events turned out as they had been predicted. They all have not done anything to deserve the fate they had. In this play, it appears, therefore, that the gods want to make a point using Oedipus. The play proves that the gods have the right over the fate of ma

Sylvan, Barnet, William Burto and William Cain. An Introduction to Literature . London: Longman Publishing, 2010. Print.

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The Character Oedipus Analysis

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Oedipus' tragic flaw and excessive pride, oedipus' determination to uncover the truth, oedipus' downfall and the concept of fate.

Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." Translated by Ian Johnston, Richer Resources Publications, 2005.

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Oedipus Hubris Analysis. The story of Oedipus, as told by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, is one of the most enduring and compelling tales of hubris and its consequences. The character of Oedipus, a proud and determined king, is a prime example of the destructive power of hubris. In this essay, we will explore the various aspects of ...
Oedipus Rex Study Guide: Sophocles's Masterpiece Unveiled
For a study guide on Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, focusing on literary devices and in-depth analysis, look no further! 📘 Dive into the tragic world of Oedipus, where fate and free will collide, with our comprehensive guide. Explore the genius of Sophocles through themes, character breakdowns, and the masterful use of literary devices that have captivated audiences for centuries. Unlock the ...
Oedipus Rex Critical Essays
The plot is thoroughly integrated with the characterization of Oedipus, for it is he who impels the action forward in his concern for Thebes, his personal rashness, and his ignorance of his past.
The Character Oedipus Analysis: [Essay Example], 525 words
The Character Oedipus Analysis. Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" is a classic Greek tragedy that tells the story of Oedipus, a nobleman who becomes the king of Thebes and unwittingly fulfills a prophecy that leads to his tragic downfall. In this essay, we will explore how the character of Oedipus serves as a tragic hero whose excessive pride and ...
Thesis statements for essays on the tragedy Oedipus Rex
Summary: A strong thesis statement for an essay on the tragedy Oedipus Rex could focus on the inevitability of fate, the consequences of hubris, or the interplay between free will and destiny ...
Oedipus Character Analysis in The Oedipus Plays
A detailed description and in-depth analysis of Oedipus in The Oedipus Plays.
Oedipus Character Analysis
Oedipus. Extended Character Analysis. Oedipus is often considered the quintessential Aristotelian tragic hero. In Oedipus Rex, he begins the play at a high point as the benevolent and beloved King ...