Arrogance & Denial Leading to Man's Downfall in "Oedipus the King"

Certainly, there is much jeering in Oedipus' statdment because in documentaryity, he is the very reason for the dark that has befallen his battalion (Segal 56). Thus, it truly does "fall" on him, though he does not understand this when the play begins.

However, Sophocles imbues these opening scenes with even much dramatic irony. Oedipus takes the problem quite personally, as he vows, "Who'er it was that disregard/Laius, the same wild hand may chance onk me overly:/And caring thus for Laius, is but care/For mine receive blooda" (12). The irony here is obvious: Oedipus has pledged to seek prohibited whoever it was that killed Laius, with the same vigor that he would if it were a member of his family that he was avenging. Firstly, Oedipus has ultimately promised to destroy himself, since it was he who murdered Laius at the three-way crossroads. He goes so far as to tell the people of Thebes:

By what man's hand died Laius, your world-beater,

Labdacus' son, I charge him that he bring

To me his knowledge. let him feel no panic

If on a townsman's body he must clear

In essence, Oedipus has given his subject permission to fee-tail him in Laius' murder. The fact that he is responsible for the murder is plainly the crux of the play's tragedy, as Oedipus fulfills his promise to uncover the killer's identity, and destroys himself in the action as a result of his own arrogance and refusal to see the truth (Winnington-Ingram 191). In add

Indeed, condescension the characters' passionate attempts to avoid the fate that the Gods give designed for them, they give up only wound up fulfilling the prophecies of the Oracle. One might compete that their attempts to thwart fate have only made matters worsened for Oedipus, Laius, and Jacosta. There is the irony in Sophocles' play, as well as its deep tragedy.

Apollo of his will. My child could slay

Ye oracles of God?

For many a year

Indeed, to begin with Oedipus came to Thebes and took the throne, he lived in Corinth, where he was prince. One evening, at a royal banquet, he overheard gossip which claimed that he was not the real son of the King and Queen, Polybus and Merope. Troubled by this news show, Oedipus traveled to the Nracle at Delphi in order to learn the truth. The Oracle did not contribute any information about his parentage, but informed Oedipus that he would eventually murder his father and sleep with his mother. It was this horrifying news that caused Oedipus to flee Corinth, and began the journey that would eventually lead him to become King of Thebes, as he tells Jocasta, his wife and mother, that he "afled, fled from the dark entropy where Corinth lay,/To lands far off, where never I might see/My assign of scorn fulfilled" (56). Once more, Sophocles utilizes dramatic irony, as the audition realizes that instead of escaping his destiny, Oedipus has only run headfirst into the fate that the Gods have set forth for him (Winnington-Ingram 187).

To slay him. And behold we find him thus

The fear that dogged him, by his child to die

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