1) A Belief in His Own Freedom- Oedipus believes that he is solely responsible for himself. He makes his own choices and accepts any outcomes of those choices. He doesn’t believe that he has a pre-determined fate by the gods, rather, that the choices he makes will eventually lead him to his fate by his own hand and none other than himself decides this. The biggest example of this is when he hears his prophecy that he is to murder his father and marry his mother. Oedipus doesn’t know that his supposed parents are adopted parents. So, in believing them to be his real parents and upon hearing his prophecy, Oedipus runs away to avoid this from happening when really his running away is what led him to destruction and proved the prophecy true. He did not succeed in changed the course of his “pre-determined” fate, rather he ensured it. However, Oedipus, upon learning of his big sin, accepts the outcome of the whole mess and does not try to deny anything.
2) Supreme Pride/Hubris- Oedipus demonstrates a supreme pride in the respect that he feels as though he is above everyone. He (thinks that) he escaped/avoided his prophecy. He solved the riddle of the Sphinx and saved Thebes. His life has been fairly happy and successful up to this point, and that’s one of the main reasons he doesn’t consider Thebes’ recession to be anywhere near his fault. He’s too “high and mighty” in his mind (although he doesn’t display this obnoxiously) to think he could possibly be the one responsible for Thebes’ bad fortunes.
“There was a riddle too deep for common wits; A seer should have answered it; but answer came there none from you; bird-lore and god-craft all were silent. Until I came-I, ignorant Oedipus, came-and stopped the riddler’s mouth, guessing the truth by mother-wit, not bird-lore.” –Oedipus (pg. 37)
3) Capacity for Suffering- Oedipus suffers most upon learning that his prophecy came true after all. He is then living with the knowledge that he killed his own father, married his mother, and they had children together. He is also having to endure the fact that he is the “sinful” or the one responsible for his town and people’s suffering. Oedipus justifies that his actions were all done through his ignorance, but he feels that he deserves severe punishment for those actions nonetheless. Oedipus endures the heavy burden that is placed on him and is strong enough to live with it.
4) A Sense of Commitment- First, Oedipus is committed to avoiding his prophecy, so he runs away from home and later ends up in Thebes. However, the choices he makes from the moment he leaves home up to the time Thebes begins to suffer all move him towards his fate or his “resolution.” So, really, his commitment to escape from his prophecy only ends up making the prophecy come true in the end. Secondly, Oedipus tells the citizens of Thebes that whoever killed King Laius will be banished from Thebes, nothing more, and that would be the “punishment” for the crime. Oedipus commits to this same punishment when the criminal who murdered Laius turns out to be none other than himself. He stands by what he told the people of Thebes the punishment would be and doesn’t try to change it or dismiss it merely because he is king and in charge. He banishes himself and gouges out his eyeballs in his despair which is like an added punishment that he administers to himself.
5) Vigorous Protest- Oedipus speaks with the prophet Tiresias who tells him (after a lot of pestering and egging on by Oedipus) that he, Oedipus is the one who is responsible for the suffering in Thebes. Oedipus is outraged at this and objects, thinking that there is no possible way that he, king of Thebes, is the cause for these hard times. Even upon his first learning that his prophecy came true, Oedipus objects and tries to justify his objection with the fact that he ran away from his parents long ago and hasn’t seen them since.
6) Transfiguration- When Oedipus learns the truth about his real parents and that he actually did kill his father and marry his mother, he suffers greatly from this knowledge. It is through this suffering that Oedipus’ character is transformed. He learns that in trying to avoid his prophecy, he only made it come true and that he couldn’t have possibly avoided it unless he had known who his real parents were, and they hadn’t even know he was alive anyway. With his painful knowledge, he goes from being a man who thought himself on a higher level than others to a man who has lived and who has suffered just as others do. He also sees though that although he could not/did not keep his prophecy from coming true, he still did good things, and he didn’t have to have the same power as the gods to do any of what he did.
7) Impact- The impact on the other characters in the book and what I got out of Oedipus’ story was this: Oedipus is only human. He's just a man. He unknowingly made mistakes in his life and upon recognizing his mistakes, he learns from them just as any person should do. We learn that in trying to be perfect or “god-like” we obtain nothing because we have nothing to learn from. If Oedipus had done everything correctly in his life and not made any major mistakes, what then, would be the point of the story? His actions through the book and at the end also affect his offspring, who are now "damned" without even having done anything merely because they came to be through sin.We learn from our experiences, good and bad, and try to accept when we do things wrong, accept the consequences and move on with our lives and try to do things better or differently the next time. We only have so much time to live before time runs out.
2) Supreme Pride/Hubris- Oedipus demonstrates a supreme pride in the respect that he feels as though he is above everyone. He (thinks that) he escaped/avoided his prophecy. He solved the riddle of the Sphinx and saved Thebes. His life has been fairly happy and successful up to this point, and that’s one of the main reasons he doesn’t consider Thebes’ recession to be anywhere near his fault. He’s too “high and mighty” in his mind (although he doesn’t display this obnoxiously) to think he could possibly be the one responsible for Thebes’ bad fortunes.
“There was a riddle too deep for common wits; A seer should have answered it; but answer came there none from you; bird-lore and god-craft all were silent. Until I came-I, ignorant Oedipus, came-and stopped the riddler’s mouth, guessing the truth by mother-wit, not bird-lore.” –Oedipus (pg. 37)
3) Capacity for Suffering- Oedipus suffers most upon learning that his prophecy came true after all. He is then living with the knowledge that he killed his own father, married his mother, and they had children together. He is also having to endure the fact that he is the “sinful” or the one responsible for his town and people’s suffering. Oedipus justifies that his actions were all done through his ignorance, but he feels that he deserves severe punishment for those actions nonetheless. Oedipus endures the heavy burden that is placed on him and is strong enough to live with it.
4) A Sense of Commitment- First, Oedipus is committed to avoiding his prophecy, so he runs away from home and later ends up in Thebes. However, the choices he makes from the moment he leaves home up to the time Thebes begins to suffer all move him towards his fate or his “resolution.” So, really, his commitment to escape from his prophecy only ends up making the prophecy come true in the end. Secondly, Oedipus tells the citizens of Thebes that whoever killed King Laius will be banished from Thebes, nothing more, and that would be the “punishment” for the crime. Oedipus commits to this same punishment when the criminal who murdered Laius turns out to be none other than himself. He stands by what he told the people of Thebes the punishment would be and doesn’t try to change it or dismiss it merely because he is king and in charge. He banishes himself and gouges out his eyeballs in his despair which is like an added punishment that he administers to himself.
5) Vigorous Protest- Oedipus speaks with the prophet Tiresias who tells him (after a lot of pestering and egging on by Oedipus) that he, Oedipus is the one who is responsible for the suffering in Thebes. Oedipus is outraged at this and objects, thinking that there is no possible way that he, king of Thebes, is the cause for these hard times. Even upon his first learning that his prophecy came true, Oedipus objects and tries to justify his objection with the fact that he ran away from his parents long ago and hasn’t seen them since.
6) Transfiguration- When Oedipus learns the truth about his real parents and that he actually did kill his father and marry his mother, he suffers greatly from this knowledge. It is through this suffering that Oedipus’ character is transformed. He learns that in trying to avoid his prophecy, he only made it come true and that he couldn’t have possibly avoided it unless he had known who his real parents were, and they hadn’t even know he was alive anyway. With his painful knowledge, he goes from being a man who thought himself on a higher level than others to a man who has lived and who has suffered just as others do. He also sees though that although he could not/did not keep his prophecy from coming true, he still did good things, and he didn’t have to have the same power as the gods to do any of what he did.
7) Impact- The impact on the other characters in the book and what I got out of Oedipus’ story was this: Oedipus is only human. He's just a man. He unknowingly made mistakes in his life and upon recognizing his mistakes, he learns from them just as any person should do. We learn that in trying to be perfect or “god-like” we obtain nothing because we have nothing to learn from. If Oedipus had done everything correctly in his life and not made any major mistakes, what then, would be the point of the story? His actions through the book and at the end also affect his offspring, who are now "damned" without even having done anything merely because they came to be through sin.We learn from our experiences, good and bad, and try to accept when we do things wrong, accept the consequences and move on with our lives and try to do things better or differently the next time. We only have so much time to live before time runs out.
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