Oedipus the King Reflective Essay

Joe Torti

Ms. Broccoli

British Literature

18 December 2015

Oedipus, the Liar

In the play Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, Oedipus was first looked at as a very strong and heroic man, but, overtime, he lost the trust of his people.  While Oedipus was in his position of power, he was a powerful man who cared about the people and how to save them from this dreadful plague. However, Oedipus committed some very serious crimes to become king and during his reign as king.  When Oedipus first finds out what he has to do in order to remove the plague from the people, Oedipus does nothing and is searching for an answer that can't be found. When Oedipus murdered Laius and had intercourse with his mother and had children with her, the entire idea of Oedipus being a great leader drifted away.  I do not feel any type of sympathy for Oedipus because due to his own mistakes he led  himself to make even more mistakes that have resulted in the death of people.

While in Thebes, the people are suffering a horrific plague and Oedipus is powerless and does not know how to save his people.  Oedipus decides to send Creon to speak with the gods and ask how to cure the plague.  The gods give Creon an answer and Creon returns to Oedipus with their response.  Creon comes back immediately and is suggesting to Oedipus that he tells him the news behind closed doors. Oedipus disagrees and says “Speak it to all;/ the grief I bear, I bear it more for these/ than my own heart” (Sophocles I. 103-105).  Creon follows Oedipus’s orders and tells him, “I will tell you, then,/ what I heard from the God./ King Phoebus in plain words commanded us/ to drive out a pollution from our land,/ pollution grown ingrained within the land;/ drive it out, said the God, not cherish it,/ till its past cure” (Sophocles I. 105-111).  This quote is saying that the murderer of Laius needs to be banished from the land or killed.  I do not feel sympathy for Oedipus because he is a murderer, and murderers...