Agony In Oedipus

4 Pages 1123 Words

In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus discovers through mental, physical and emotional suffering who he really is, which leads him to accept his indisputable fate
Discuss.
Many who have passed through the crucible of suffering will acknowledge that they have found themselves infinitely better from the experience - bitter though it may have been. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus discovers through mental, physical and emotional suffering who he really is, which leads him to accept his indisputable fate. As Oedipus grows in terrifying self-knowledge, he changes from a once prideful, heroic King, to a tyrant in denial toward the middle, and finally to a fearful, condemned man, humbled by his tragic fate. Oedipus’ mental anguish over whether or not he is Laius’ murderer, his physical torture (by gauging out his eyes) and, his emotional torment over Jocastas’ death and his children’s fate, cause his suffering but, in the end, leads to his self-realization.
Oedipus’s mental distress causes him a great deal of suffering but, in turn, leads to his self-realization. In the beginning, Oedipus is a very confident and valiant hero, with more than a sufficient amount of pride. Oedipus, as the male protagonist, finds himself constrained to rid Thebes of a horrible and deadly plague that will cease only if he finds King Lauis’ murderer, “Does any man among you know/ who killed Laius son of Labdacus?” (14).Oedipus, in such an unrelenting effort to find the assassin discovers that he himself might be the murderer, “I say, the murderer of the man/ whose murder you pursue is you” (21).Tiresias corners Oedipus and points to him as Lauis’ murderer. With this, Oedipus is in rage and disbelief. As Oedipus places the burden onto Tiresias, accusing him of being the sinister murderer, he falls into a hollow pit of denial. Further on in the story, Oedipus learns pieces of information about the assassination of Laius. With th...