How is Oedipus admirable? Was he a good leader? Does it seem fair for Oedipus to call himself “the worst of men”? Why or why not?
Oedipus Rex marks the formal achievement of classical Greek drama, given its perfect use of dramatic devices. Examining the life of Oedipus, the play portrays patricide, incent, and the eventual downfall of the protagonist. Herein is an explanation of how Oedipus is admirable, a description of how he was a good leader, and an account of why it does not seem fair for him to consider himself the worst of men.
Oedipus is admirable for two reasons. First, when he learns of the prophecy that he would murder his father and take his mother as a wife, Oedipus flees home, unaware that he is adopted to prevent the prophecy from manifesting itself. Although he is saddened about leaving his homeland, he still does it to protect his parents, proving Oedipus is unselfish and cares for others more than he cares about himself. Sadly, he runs headlong into the terrible fate and unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. Second, when he realizes the truth, he takes responsibility for his actions and does not blame anyone for his tragedies. As a result, he takes his eyesight by blinding himself to exact punishment on himself. The blindness acts as a metaphor for his lack of ability to look upon himself after realizing he was symbolically blind to his scandalous past.
Oedipus was a good leader because he had a concerned attitude for his people and his Kingdom. When the City gets ravaged by the plague, as a punishment from the gods for King Laius’ murder, Oedipus displays sincere and genuine concerns by meeting directly with his subjects and promising to kill the perpetrator to rid the Kingdom of the plague. Thus, he seeks out the killer to minimize the suffering, insisting that the killer will be punished. However, his search for the murderer is an instance of irony for two reasons. First, the irony is that he is looking for himself because he is the King’s murderer. Oedipus knew that he had killed an older man, but he did not realize that it was Laius yet, the audience knows that it was Oedipus who murdered the King. Second, he says he will find the killer using all his power as he would do for his father. This declaration is dramatic irony because he vows to search out his own father’s killer.
It does not appear just for Oedipus to term himself as the worst of men because he did not intend to end his father’s life and to wed his mother. He asserts, ”I would not have come to kill my father, and men would not see in me the husband of the woman who gave birth to me” (Sophocles, line 1360). Oedipus had tried in every way to avoid the two crimes, but the gods controlled his fate. By controlling his destiny, the gods grant people the power of prophecy through Apollo’s oracle to predict bad things on Oedipus’s life. Thus, despite the gods having the ability to make Oedipus’s life better, they decide to make him miserable. Additionally, they fail to exempt him from punishment, although he did not sin. With such, Oedipus’s heroic tragedy seems to be out of his control; hence, it is unfair for him to term himself as the worst of men.
Work Cited
Sophocles. ‘‘Oedipus the King’’. Ian Johnston 2007