Mr.

7 Pages 1742 Words

In the epic Oedipus The King, Sophocles portrays Oedipus as a man blinded by his own fate. Oedipus is so caught up trying to find the murder of the old king, Laius, that he doesn’t see that he himself is to blame. Our own sins can blind us from the truth as did Oedipus sins blind him from the truth. Not only does Oedipus become blinded because he refuses to acknowledge the possibility of him actually being the murder of Laius, but in the end blindness overcomes Oedipus physically.
In the beginning Oedipus brother-in-law, Creon, is sent to the holy oracle at Delphi to find out from the gods what they should do to cure the land from the famine that has overcome them. Creon returns to Thebes and informs Oedipus that the gods want the murderer of King Laius driven from the land (Hillegrass 24). Oedipus first sign of his blindness comes when he promises to obey the gods and to find the murder of the King.
When Oedipus asks about the murder of the King, Creon goes on to tell the story of Laius’s murder. On their way to consult an oracle, Laius and all but one of his fellow travelers were killed by thieves. Oedipus asks why the Thebans made no attempt to find the murderers, and Creon reminds him that Thebes was then more concerned with the curse of the Sphinx. Hearing this, Oedipus resolves to solve the mystery of Laius’s murder (Hillegrass 25). Again we find Oedipus blinded by his own determination and his own self fulfillment.
When Creon retells the story of Laius’s murder, Oedipus is shocked and dismayed that the investigation of the murder of a king was so swiftly dropped. Oedipus quickly hatches plans to deal with both his people’s suffering and Laius’s unsolved murder, and he has even anticipated the Chorus’s suggestions that he sends someone to the oracle and call forth Tiresias. Finally, Oedipus is intense in his promises of dire punishment for Laius’s murderer, even if the murderer turns out to be someone close ...