Oedipus the King Essay Summary Example For Students

Oedipus the King Essay Summary Oedipus the KingBeing born with a terrible prophecy, having parents send out for death, surviving death, living in a entirely lie, does it sounds like fate or is it made by decisions? In the play Oedipus the king there is a deliberation in whether Oedipus life is simply just fate with an incapacity to change it or if he chooses his fate by the choices and decisions he formulates. There is no right or wrong answer and in this case there is evidence supporting both fate and choice. Oedipus never asked to be born, therefore does not deserve to have such a tragic destiny, but it could be possible that he was destine to die as a baby and it only took the choice of a shepherd to change Oedipuss fate. In the beginning of the play a priest pleads Oedipus to help them again from a terrible plague as he had done before: Again now Oedipus, our greatest power, we plead with you, as suppliants, all of us, to find us strength , whether from a gods response or learned in some way from another man. I know that the experienced among men give counsels that will prosper best of all Noblest of men lift up our land again! Think also of yourself; since now the land calls you its Savior for your zeal of old, oh let us never look back at your rule as men helped up only to fall again! The city was in desperate need of his help. He was the smart one that solved the riddle of Sphinx , so that meant he was the only one who would be able to help. Oedipus did not do anything against the city of Thebes, on the contrary, he kept Thebes out of trouble. It was not Oedipus fault he was so wise, although, he did choose his fate by deciding to runaway from Corinth and into Thebes. Even though he did decide to runaway, he did not know what life was expecting for him and since he had already heard from someone that he had a curse and would kill his father and marry his mother, he thought it was for the best of everybody to run far away from his supposedly parents to stay away from the curse. It ended up worse leaving Corinth and arriving at Thebes because the curse came all true. After receiving the notice about the second terrible plague, Oedipus wanted to know the cause of it. He sends Creon, his brother-in-law, to find out the reason for the contagious fevers, bad farming, dead animals, and emotional women who cant produce offspring because of this plague. Creon finally finds out and he tells Oedipus: We must banish or murder to free ourselves from a murder that blows storms through the city. My Lord, a king named Laius ruled our land before you came to steer the city straight. Since he was murdered, you must raise your hand against the men who killed him with their hands. Oedipus decided that he needed the wisdom of Tiresias, a prophet, to tell him the real murder of king Laius. But Tiresias did not want to say what he knew about the murderer of Laius. Oedipus insisted again and again, but Tiresias would remain silent. They both argued back and forth until Oedipus blamed him of doing it: Let me go home! If you will listen to me, You will endure your troub les better-and I mine. A strange request, not very kind to the land that cared for you-to hold back this oracle! It will come then why wont you declare it? Now I am angry enough to come right out with this conjecture: you, I think, helped plot the deed; you did iteven if your hand, cannot have struck the blow. If you could see, I should have said the deed was yours alone. Is that right! Then I charge you to abide by the decree you have announced: from this day say no word to either these or me, for you are the vile polluter of this land! This is when Oedipus finally finds out that he is indeed the murderer of Lauis. Oedipus cannot believe it is true, that is why he tries to blame everybody else. First he blames Tiresias and then he goes on and blames Creon: Are these inventions Creons or your own?. Tiresias did not want to tell Oedipus anything, but Oedipus basically forced him to do so. If Oedipus would not been so pushy, he would have maybe never known that he was the murderer. Ev en Tiresias tells him I wouldnt have come had you not sent for me. So Tiresias blames Oedipus in knowing the truth ,he says if he had not sent for him he would of not known the truth. Although he did have the right to know the real truth about his life and who he really was.