Short Essay: Oedipus the King

In the play Oedipus by Sophocles, King Oedipus is nothing but a self diluted ruler who thinks too highly of himself. He calls the most respected and revered prophet in the land a liar and scam artist to his face "Say what you will. Whatever you say is worthlessÐ'... Wealth, power, craft of statesmanship! Kingly position, everywhere admired!" just because Oedipus does not like what he has told him. The fact that he can not, and will not believe that he might have killed his father is strange, taking into fact what has happened in Oedipus's life. Having killed a known wealthy man and his servants during the same time as the former king of Thebes was killed and simply just ignores it seems very stubborn and ignorant. Also the fact the Oedipus fathered his two daughters by his own mother is quite disturbing. Although Oedipus at the time did not know that his new wife was his mother, it still does not change the fact that it was wrong. Once you get past the incest aspect of the story it's a very good story about one king's rise and fall from outcast to ruler to outcast again. After Oedipus finds out that he truly is the son of the murdered king of Thebes and has married his mother he blinds himself in a fit or rage. He says that he is not fit to see the light because of the sins that he has committed. I see this as an escape from the world around him. Oedipus knows that he must leave Thebes and does not want to see the eyes of those around him shun him as he leaves. The only thing that I believe Oedipus did honorably was to ask his brother-in-law Creon to watch after his two daughters, for Creon is the only family that the girls have now. He makes him promise to keep the girls as his own daughters, and to make sure that he will not let them become beggars and completely lonely. In the end I believe it was Oedipus's pride that eventually led him to ruins.