Discuss Oedipus' tragic flaw and its ramifications - Research Paper Example

To escape such a tragedy, he tied the infant’s ankles and commanded a shepherd to leave it to die at Mount Cithaeron. Taking pity on the innocent soul, the shepherd instead brought him to Polybus, king of Corinth and wife Merope. They raised the child as their own and called him Oedipus. Intrigued by questions about his true identity, and with his adopted parents standing firm on the deception that he is their own, Oedipus consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. Oedipus was told that he is fated to take the life of his father and make a wife of his own mother.

Horrified of what awaits him in what he thought was his birth land, Oedipus left Corinth, determined never to return. On his journey to Thebes, he came upon Laius and had him killed when a squabble over pride sets in, inadvertently fulfilling part of the prophecy. At the time, Thebes was in state of trepidation on account of a man-eating Sphinx, thus unable to pay enough attention to the death of its king. Oedipus, however, brought the Sphinx’s reign of terror to an end by answering its riddle about the phases of human life.

Consequently, Oedipus was granted the right to the throne and the hand of Jacosta, widow to Laius and mother to Oedipus, in marriage. They had four children: two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene. The attempt by Oedipus to break away from the fated catastrophe proved meaningless. As a consequence of the serious mischief he inflicted upon his parents, Oedipus was held responsible for a series of unfortunate events that tormented Oedipus himself, his family, and the whole of Thebes.

It was such an irreparable damage that can be put right by neither repentance nor punishment. The Plague in Thebes The magnificent reign of Oedipus in the city of Thebes was brought to a standstill when once again a pestilence that spared not a single being came about. The soil from which the people cultivated their live stocks turned barren, and the robust greenery that supplied their daily bread stopped bearing fruits. Worst of all, the women complained of infertility—unable to bequeath their husbands successors to their homes and duties.

This was conveyed to Oedipus in appalling agony by a priest of Zeus. “Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughs, a blight is in our harvest in the ear, a blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, a blight on wives in travail; and withal armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague hath swooped upon our city emptying the house of Cadmus, and the murky realm of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears” (Sophocles 3). It was revealed by the blind prophet Teiresias that the plague shall not be banished from Thebes until the death of king Lauis is given justice, and the perpetrator was thrown to perish into the fortress of Hades.

Oblivious to the fact, Oedipus vowed to his subjects that he would stop at nothing to take vengeance on the man responsible. Typical for a man in his position, Oedipus demonstrated resoluteness to keep his word despite pleas by his wife to do otherwise. This, unfortunately, resulted in another tribulation that broke his heart and tore his soul into pieces. When her brother Creon came back from an inquest to give light to the tragedy that befell the late king, Jocasta had her suspicions