Oedipus: a Rounded Character

Oedipus Rex, a story about a good man who made a terrible mistake. The author portrayed the main character, Oedipus, with such complexity. This character went through a large amount of information thrown at him at once that completely changed him and possibly what he thought of himself. His past was considered a lie. Not only did he not want to believe that his prophecy became truth, but his wife as well. His character is one like no other because he earned his throne, he saved the people he cared about and went through a mental change due to the truths told to him. In the beginning, Oedipus, as king, not only fought against the plague, that was killing the people of Thebes, but also had the mission of finding the killer of the previous king. During that journey, he tries to do what he can to find the murderer and is somewhat calm while doing so. He was extremely determined and would stop at nothing. He found value in his crown and what he had. He was grateful and never put his throne on the line.

Once the truth is told to him he must deny anything and everything for the fact that he doesn’t recall ever killing the king. He becomes be very defensive towards the fact that he not only killed the king but for the fact that the prophecy did not come true. “They prophesied that I should kill Polybos, kill my own father; but he is dead and buried, and I am here- I never touched him, never, unless he died of grief from my departure” (Sophocles 48). He’s convinced that he never laid a hand on him so his fate was incorrect and that no one can trust what the Pythian hearth has to say because they predicted wrong. Once he gets more knowledge about his past, he begins to get more interested and irritated along with more afraid of lying with his mother. He gets anxious about how his fate might be, what the past meant and what that could mean for the future. His wife didn’t want to get embarrassed at the fact that he might have been of lower class or a slave of some kind so she doesn’t want to hear of it. During this time, we see Oedipus be kind of forward and blunt with her saying, “You need not worry.

Suppose my mother was a slave, and born of slaves: no baseness can tough you” and “Let us leave this woman to brag of her royal name” (Sophocles 55). Oedipus showed many characteristics and became a complex character over the span of the tragedy. Just as any person would, he grew more and more worrisome of these things that were being said to him. He had a realistic attitude bringing up and never wanted to believe that his father was not his father and that he possibly might have killed him and slept with his mother. Oedipus wanted no lie to be truth and truth to be a lie.

Cite this page