Thursday, January 23, 2014
There's a Flaw in the System
The more we get to know someone, the more we find that we might not like. Sort of like Donkey in "Shrek" explaining about the layers of an onion. As you've read the bulk of the play, Oedipus's character clarifies, and some of the pieces aren't so wonderful. Consider his actions and choices, and determine his flaw. What is it, and what is the evidence that supports it? What mistake in judgment is caused by his flaw? What does the mistake ultimately lead to? Be clear about the flaw, the mistake in judgment, and the consequences.
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The more we get to know someone, the more we find that we might not like. As the play unfolds, Oedipus’s character clarifies, and some of the pieces aren’t so wonderful. Considering Oedipus’s actions and choices, his flaw is his temper. Oedipus makes many mistakes in judgement because of his temper, and these mistakes contribute in fulfilling the prophecy stating that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. For example, when Oedipus was fleeing Corinth, he met a man traveling with a group of people on the same road. That man, though Oedipus did not know this at the time, was king Laïos and Oedipus’s father. Oedipus lost his temper and killed Laïos, and by doing so completed part of the prophecy.
ReplyDeleteAs the play unravels, we get to know Oedipus more and more. At first we see a strong seemingly prefect leader to his people. However, as we read on and Oedipus's story unfolds we see his imperfections and flaws. We see his major flaw in scene II, when he is recounting the story of the man he killed. We see how a seemingly normal interaction turned bad, and eventually led to the curse being fulfilled. We see that Oedipus's anger is his flaw. He talks of his walk down to the three highways, and how he was pushed off the road by a mysterious chariot. This small sign of disrespect was enough to make Oedipus kill him. Oedipus says: "Swinging my club in this right hand I knocked him out of his car, and he rolled on the ground. I killed him." In this moment Oedipus's blind rage was enough to make him kill a stranger, simply for pushing him off the road. In doing so Oedipus completed the prophecy, thanks to his anger
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the book, I saw Oedipus as a strong hero who could really save Thebes and the plague. He seemed positive that the oracle was not true, and showed it clearly in a negative way; He got angry, causing him to kill one of the highwaymen even though he had not done Oedipus harm. Oedipus also yells at people a lot. ""I killed them all. Now if that stranger and Laios were-kin, Were is a man more miserable than I?" These mistakes seem like karma to me. He makes them, and suddenly he finds out he is married to his mother, and that the oracle he was sure wasn't true, was true.
ReplyDeleteOedipus first seemed like a strong and caring leader whom all of the people of Thebes looked up to. As the book continued, he started to unravel his past and therefore his main flaw, his temper. Oedipus' temper has been shown many times in his life however the time that mattered most was when he was escaping Cornith. He came across highwaymen and lost his temper with them, killing all but one of them."The groom leading the horses forced me off the road at his lords command... I struck him in my rage... I killed him" Later he found out one of the dead men was his father, Laois the one who's murderer Oedipus is trying to find. The mistake of hurting the highwaymen and Laois caused the mess that Oedipus is currently in, fulfilling his prophecy. It ultimately leads to him containing the knowledge of killing his father and marrying his mother. If his rage hadn't gotten to him that day his father would probably still be alive and married to Iocaste.
ReplyDeleteOedipus has one or two simple flaws, he has an extremely short temper and likes to jump to conclusions. At the beginning of the play we are unsure about Oedipus because he acts as if he is equal to his people yet calls them children. Things only get worse form here. Oedipus starts to fear whatever is coming even though he single handedly defeated a plague. He becomes strict and impatient with his people and one example of him losing his temper is his accusation to Creon of treason. Teriesias an oracle tells Oedipus exactly what he does not want to hear and cannot handle so he parry's his own problem and accused Creon of wanting the power he could easily have. My second example is his conversation with Tiresias. He starts off calling the oracle lord and acting as if he had no power, but that quickly changed when he was not hearing what he wanted. He started calling Tiresias names and asking how a blind man can see. All of Oedipus's foolishness caused him great pain when he found out what he had done (sleeping with his mother and killing his father). And all this is due to Oedipus's flaws.
ReplyDeleteWhen the play begins Oedipus appears to be an excellent leader to his people. He is focused on nothing but solving the cities issues, and is determined to go to whatever lengths he can to find the source of the plague. However, this image of his perfect character is broken when Tereisias is introduced. When the prophet refuses to tell Oedipus the truth, he quickly becomes angry. I think that Oedipus has two great flaws: his temper and his obsession with the truth. When Oedipus first hears that Polybos isn't his father, he goes to the oracle in search of the truth. The oracle foresees that he will kill his father and marry his mother so he leaves. When information about his past begins to resurface in his quest to end the plague in Thebes he cannot help but to try and find the truth, although both the prophet and Shepard warn him against doing so. If Oedipus had not so desperately wanted the truth in the first place he never would have sought out the first prophecy, creating the whole mess he is in.
ReplyDeleteAs the book goes on, we start to learn Oedipus's real character. At the beginning, Oedipus seamed like an excellent, caring intelligent and selfless king. He was holding no secrets to the people, and made them feel like he cared. For example when Oedipus's friend comes back with news, he wants to say it in front of the people instead of going inside. As the book goes on the reader starts to se a different side of Oedipus. One of Oedipus's flaws is that he has a temper when he wants information or things aren't going his way. When he was talking to Tiresias, he did not like that he was not giving him instant information, so he started to get mad and say mean things to him. He also did not like the information he heard, so he denied it. Another flaw of Oedipus is that he is impatient and eager for information, and most importantly the truth. When he was talking to the Shepard and the messenger, he threatened to kill the Shepard if he did not give him the information. He wanted to know the exact truth at that very moment and not wait to find out. Sometimes this flaw can cause problems because if he didn't know any of this he could have escaped this whole thing and he wouldn't have to live with knowing the disgusting truth. People tried to shield him from the truth for his own good, but he refused it. Having a temper can also lead him to bad and impulsive decisions and things that he will regret in the future.
ReplyDeleteOedipus has a few flaws. I would say that his main flaw is his short fuse. He is very quick to anger and gets mad very easily. It can seem like he is nice and calm but the second you challenge him, he gets very mad. This can influence his decisions like having both messengers come together and talk about what happened to Oedipus on the hill side. I think it will ultimately result in his downfall and have him either killed or sent out of he palace and be de throned. At the moment there were not very many consequences that have been very bad, but I think they will.
ReplyDeleteThe book starts out with the readers believing that Oedipus is completely innocent, a very good, selfless king who has his people in mind. I would never think of Oedipus has harmful and definitely not a murderer on the first few pages of this book. However, as the book goes on we learn that Oedipus has a temper. He gets angry very easily which leads to his mistakes. This is Oedipus's flaw that is slowly starting to unwind and his mistakes are catching up with him. Overall, Oedipus's anger issues lead to the murder of Laios.
ReplyDeleteOedipus’s character flaw is his arrogance, and his pride. He believes that he is smart and powerful enough to outsmart the gods and the fate they ordained for him in the oracle. Oedipus tries to escape this fate by running away from the Corinth, and away from Polybos and Merope, the father and mother he thinks the oracle is referring to. This is a big mistake, because on the road from Corinth he lets his pride and temper get the best of him and kills Laios, the man who, little does he know, is his actual father. Another result of Oedipus fleeing Corinth is that he eventually makes his way back to Thebes and unknowingly marries Iocaste, his real mother. In the very act of fleeing, Oedipus fulfills the prophecy he is trying so hard to avoid. Iocaste had abandoned him as a child to keep the very same prophecy from coming true, and all of her work is undone by Oedipus as he attempts to outsmart the gods. If Oedipus had never made the mistake of fleeing Corinth, he might have actually been able to evade the prophecy. However, because Oedipus tried to meddle in his fate and protect himself from the gods, he eventually brought the horrible prophecy he was running from right down on his head.
ReplyDeleteAs we continue to read more and more of the book we continue to learn more about Oedipus. I'd say his main flaw is his decision making. In this case, decision making sums up not only his choices, but other things such as getting mad and falsely accusing people for actions they didn't do. He decided that it would be smart for him to leave Corinth and try and outsmart the gods and their oracle. Not only that, multiple times in the book we see him getting mad at people and as I mentioned before, falsely accusing them for things. For example, when Teiresias wouldn't tell Oedipus the information he knew about Laios' death, Oedipus began to threaten him and get mad and try and scare the answer out of Teiresias. He had also accused Creon of being involved with a set up to kill him (Oedipus). All of his bad decisions are starting to come back and show the bad in his ideas. I think this flaw could also be considered arrogance.
ReplyDeleteAs we keep reading the play we know more and more about Oedipus. We learn that Oedipus isn't very patient and can make bad decisions. He also often gets angry quickly over small things, like when the messenger of Thebes was hesitating to tell him the story he threatened to kill him twice. He also often makes false accusations, like when he accused Creon of helping to take down Oedipus. Oedipus short temper also might have caused him to kill Laios. The story sounds like he just got really angry for them pushing him off the road (which isn't a huge problem) but he killed them over it.
ReplyDeleteAs we begin to finish up Oedipus rex we notice that Oedipus has some stand out flaws. Oedipus has a very short temper and will do anything to learn the truth about where he comes from. He uses a lot of anger and temper to seduce other characters into telling him what he needs to know. His first encounter with Therisias Oedipus uses anger to get the first prophecy out of him, then with the Shepard. He threatens both these men with the greatest punishment in death so he can get what he wants, as a king these are very bad tributes as a leader. His mistake ultimately gives him the truth about where he comes from how how the prophecy is true leaving Oedipus very confused and angered.
ReplyDeleteAs the story goes we realize how Oedipus isn’t all the hero that we perceive him to be. We see how Oedipus has a temper by when he came across Laios, by him running into laios you see that he is angry and upset with the gods. He’s so angry with the gods prophet he decides to try and kill everybody who is will Laios in the cart. He also isn't the most popular with the gods because he tried to not go with the prophet which by trying he was defacing the gods. By trying to go around the problem he started to fulfill the prophecy slowly without knowing. His judgement of leaving corinth was bad because it actually created his mistake of killing his father and marrying his mother.
ReplyDeleteOedipus’s main flaw is his self consciousness. I believe that everything that he does is for himself. While sometimes, it can benefit others, like when he solved the riddle of the sphinx, I believe he did it for the glory it would give him. He constantly wants to know everything about himself and won't stop searching for answers. Even when Jocasta runs off begining him not to continue talking to the shepherd he immediately assumes that she is just being selfish. In the end he becomes so embarrassed that he stabs his eyes out. He does this not to punish himself but so he doesn’t have to look at the people he betrayed.
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