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Oedipus Rex CriticalResponse. Acceptance or Doom: An Analysis of Sophocles
?Oedipus Rex? In the story ?Oedipus Rex,? by Sophocles ...
Submitted by alejovl91 on January 6, 2008
Category: Miscellaneous
Words: 390 | Pages: 2
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Acceptance or Doom: An Analysis of Sophocles “Oedipus Rex”
In the story “Oedipus Rex,” by Sophocles, the author suggests that one’s fate
cannot be altered, but if an individual’s pride and arrogance make the individual try
to change his/her fate, the person becomes hubristic and at the end the person
realizes fate cannot be changed and the person’s fate happens the way it was
supposed to happen. If people belief in fate and at some point in people’s life an
individual discovers what his/her fate is, the person should just accept their fate
and not try to change destiny.
Oedipus’s ability to solve problems is shown when the sphinx was in Thebes and
Oedipus, “the simple man,” solved the sphinx’s riddle. When Oedipus describes
himself as “simple” he is being sarcastic and is implying that he is smarter than all
Thebans which is true and shows his intelligence. Oedipus was proud of being
intelligent and that he solved the sphinx’s riddle because “no birds helped” him;
birds were known for helping the gods’ oracles to see the future or an individual’s
fate. His pride of solving the sphinx’s riddle makes him feel superior to other
human beings, which makes him arrogant. Oedipus demonstrates his arrogance in
the moment he says that the sphinx’s “magic,” that being its riddle, demanded a
“real exorcist” -- which he really is not, truly he is just a fool who tried to
outsmart the gods -- the “exorcist” being Oedipus because he beats the sphinx.
When Oedipus solves the riddle, he does not only become arrogant, but also
hubristic because he feels superior to the gods since only he was able to save
Thebes from the sphinx. Oedipus’s heroic excess leads him to be exiled from
Thebes to a place where “no human voice can ever greet him;” that is to a place
in which he...
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