Oedipus Tyrannus: Analysis of Major Characters
"Oedipus Tyrannus" is a profound exploration of fate, identity, and tragic consequences centered around the character of Oedipus, the king of Thebes. Raised by the rulers of Corinth, Oedipus flees his home after learning of a dire prophecy that foretells he will kill his father and marry his mother. In a series of fateful encounters, he inadvertently fulfills this prophecy, culminating in his rise to power in Thebes, where he marries Queen Jocasta, unaware that she is his biological mother. Oedipus's character is marked by intelligence and bravery but also by pride and impulsive decision-making, which lead him to a tragic reckoning.
Jocasta, deeply intertwined in Oedipus's fate, initially seeks to protect her husband but ultimately succumbs to despair upon discovering the truth of their relationship. Another key figure is Creon, Jocasta’s brother, who represents a more measured and rational approach to leadership compared to Oedipus. The blind prophet Tiresias knows Oedipus's dark fate, yet his revelations are met with anger and disbelief. As the story unfolds, Oedipus's quest for identity leads to devastating revelations that reflect the complexity of human existence, the inescapability of fate, and the profound consequences of one's actions. This exploration of major characters in "Oedipus Tyrannus" raises significant questions about knowledge, guilt, and the human condition, making it a compelling subject for further investigation.
Oedipus Tyrannus: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Sophocles
Genre: Play
Locale: Thebes
Plot: Tragedy
Time: Remote antiquity
Oedipus (EHD-ih-puhs), the king of Thebes. A foundling, he had been reared by Polybus and Merope, king and queen of Corinth. In that city, he had enjoyed a place of honor until a drunken Corinthian at a banquet accused him of being a bastard. To settle the matter, he went to the oracle at Pytho, who revealed that he was destined to lie with his mother and murder his father. To avoid this curse, he fled Corinth. During his travels, he was thrust out of the road by an old man in a carriage. Angered, Oedipus returned the old man's blow and killed him. Later, he overcame the Sphinx by answering a riddle that the monster put to all whom it encountered, killing those who could not solve it. As a reward, Oedipus was made king of Thebes and given the hand of Queen Jocasta, whose former husband, King Laius, was believed killed in an encounter with highway robbers. When the action of the play begins, Oedipus has ruled well for many years, but a plague of unknown origin has recently fallen on the city. His subjects appeal to him as one especially favored by the gods to help them, but Oedipus is powerless to do so. He is essentially a good man, courageous, intelligent, and responsible, but he is also short-tempered, tragically weak in judgment, and proud of his position and past achievements, for which he gives the gods little credit. As the action progresses and the question of his responsibility for the plague is raised, he becomes obsessed with finding out who he is, regardless of repeated warnings that knowledge of his identity will bring disaster on himself and on those whom he loves.
Jocasta (joh-KAS-tuh), the wife of Oedipus and mother of his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. She, too, has a sense of the responsibilities of her position and is deeply concerned with the welfare of her husband. As bits of information relating to his identity are revealed, her sense of foreboding grows. When the truth finally becomes apparent to her, she hangs herself, overwhelmed by the enormities she has unwittingly committed.
Creon (KREE-on), Jocasta's brother and a powerful Theban noble. Sent by Oedipus to ask the Delphic Oracle what can be done to save the city from the plague, he returns with word that it will be raised when the city no longer harbors the murderer of King Laius, Jocasta's former husband. When it later appears that Oedipus may be the murderer, the king violently accuses his brother-in-law of treacherously seeking the throne, but Creon defends himself as reasonably as he can until Jocasta calms her husband. Creon is presented as a calm, pious man, with a less tyrannical view of kingship than that of Oedipus.
Tiresias (ti-REE-see-uhs), a blind prophet who alone knows what Oedipus' fate has been and will be. Oedipus consults him in an effort to find the murderer of King Laius and loses his patience when the old man at first refuses to answer. Becoming angry in turn, Tiresias reveals that Oedipus' seeming good fortune in vanquishing the Sphinx has actually caused him unknowingly to commit incest with his mother and to bring pollution upon Thebes. Furious, Oedipus sends the blind seer away.
The first messenger, an old man who comes from Corinth with word that Polybus and Merope are dead and that the people of that city want Oedipus to return as their king. This information, under the circumstances, is received joyfully by Oedipus, for if his parents have died naturally, the oracle's prediction that he is doomed to murder his father has been proved false. The messenger goes on to say that Polybus and Merope were in reality Oedipus' foster parents; he himself had received the infant Oedipus from a Theban shepherd and given him to them.
A herdsman, an old Theban who has voluntarily exiled himself from his native city. He is forced by Oedipus to confess that years earlier he had been ordered to expose the infant son of King Laius and Jocasta, but, pitying the child, he had given him to a Corinthian. He also had been the one survivor when King Laius was killed by a young man after a quarrel on the road. His information thus makes the web of evidence complete; Oedipus now knows that the old man whom he killed was Laius, his father, and that his wife Jocasta is also his mother.
The second messenger, a Theban who reports the immediate results of the shepherd's revelation: Jocasta has hanged herself and Oedipus blinded himself with the brooches that fastened her robe.