Sophocles Portrayal Of Unversal Justice Through Oedipus

The King Essay, Research Paper

Through the character of Oedipus, Sophocles shows the futility and consequences of defying the divine order. Oedipus served Thebes as a great ruler, loved by his subjects; but it is his one tragic flaw, hubris, which dooms his existence, regardless of the character attributes that make him such a beloved king.

From the opening dialogue we sense the character of Oedipus. When confronted by his subjects praying for relief of the plague he reacts kingly and graciously, saying, I am king, I had to come….How can I help?…Ask me anything. Anything at all. He obviously cares for the people in his kingdom, but he goes on to say how he pities these poor shattered people of [his]. The pity he feels is rooted not only in his love and sympathy, but his arrogance as well. Perhaps this attitude is duly deserved, for Oedipus had solved the Sphinx s riddle, an apparently heroic feat, and was seen to be greater than any man , but the leader that he had become still possessed the hubristic tendencies which doomed him from the time he fled Corinth.

It is impossible to speculate what may have happened to Oedipus had he stayed in Corinth, but it is the attempt to avoid his fate that dooms him to not only to fulfill the prophecy, but to suffer yet greater consequences. To think that he himself has the power to circumvent the prediction from the Oracle of Apollo, shows that he did not feel humbled before Apollo. Punishment for this lack of faith takes the form of the plague which Apollo imposes on Thebes, an eventual consequence of Oedipus s defiance and hubris towards the him. (The death of Laios at the crossroads, was caused, in part at least, because Oedipus left Corinth. Speculation as to whether Oedipus would have killed him anyway is futile.) The punishment of all of Thebes is infinitely worse than the original prophecy, which involved only Oedipus family members.

For the years between the destruction of the Sphinx, and the present time we are left to assume that Oedipus served his kingdom well, however we still see the essence of his original self-righteousness. When Teiresias is brought to him to help for the search for Laios killers this proud arrogance misleads him to contrive a scenario in which Kreon desires to assume the throne. Kreon was reaching for my power, wanted to ambush me, get rid of me by hiring this cheap wizard,…who sees nothing but profit. But it is the characters of Kreon and Teiresias that serve as Sophocles archetypes of the ideal Greeks, playing opposite Oedipus, the tragic hero. While Oedipus is a good man, Sophocles illustrates the strict obedience required by the gods and the code of ethics of the Greek society. The Chorus sings , Laws forged in the huge clear fields of heaven rove the sky shaping my words limiting what I do. Olympos made those laws not men….If a man walks through his life arrogant…does not fear justice, fear the gods….let fate make him stumble in his tracks. Regardless of any retribution that may be to Oedipus s credit towards the divinities, he is still ultimately responsible for each of his offenses, singularly.

The ironic similarities between Teiresias present form and Oedipus future life accentuate the lack of wisdom that Oedipus has, compared to the prophet. The near parallel between the present Teiresias and the future Oedipus indicates the importance that Sophocles and society placed on the wisdom of experience. We do not know what the earlier portion of Teiresias life was like, but his form may have been reborn from misfortune, just as Oedipus will be.

Jocasta took her life in a relatively painless way, however, Sophocles chooses to have Oedipus blind himself. It is through Oedipus debilitated state that Sophocles reveals the moral of the story, as he (Oedipus) cries, Apollo has revealed what he desires. Everything is clear….

Kreon replies, Now even you will trust the god, I think.

I will. confirms Oedipus. He continues on to reveal that he somehow understands that he is not fated to die now, but some other time. I have been saved, preserved, kept alive for some strange fate….When that thing comes, let it take me where it will. The wisdom gained through the ordeal has directly exposed him to the power and truth of the gods as well as the acceptance of what he cannot control coupled with the realization of the limits of his own mortal control over the universe.