Oedipus Rex, Creative Essay Example

How many children does Oedipus have?

Oedipus has four children with Jocasta.

What does the name “Oedipus” mean?

“Oedipus” means swollen foot.

In what country was Oedipus raised?

Oedipus was raised in Corinth.

• Fill in the blank from the last line of Oedipus Rex. “Count no mortal happy till he has passed the final limit of his life…”
• What is the significance of Oedipus distrust of Teiresias? What does this reveal about Oedipus’ character?

Oedipus is full of himself and therefore distrusts Teiresias. Usually, members of Greek society listen to what their prophets say; since Oedipus doesn’t heed this advice, it shows that he is arrogant and frightened. This arrogance is Oedipus’ fatal flaw.

Discuss the significance of Jocasta’s view of the prophecies. How does she feel about predestination?

Jocasta does not believe in the prophecies or predestination. She is convinced that predestination isn’t real because Laius was supposed to be killed by his son but it was reported that he was killed by a band of thieves instead. This is ironic because Oedipus is really Laius’s son, Oedipus did kill Laius, and the prophecy is coming true.

Is Oedipus guilty? Why does he suffer? Discuss the meaning and significance of his suffering.

Oedipus is guilty of his hubris because he tries to defy his destiny even though there is no way he can avoid it. He suffers because he tries to break away from divine intervention. By trying to avoid his fate, he suffers his fate more intensely.

Besides Teiresias’ predictions, what other examples of the foreshadowing of the shepherd’s revelations do we find?

The blindness of Teiresias foreshadows the fact that Oedipus will blind himself. It also reflects the idea that no one who was close to Oedipus truly knew where he had been buried therefore causing problems in Antigon. Lastly, Teiresias’s blindness and Oedipus’s eventual blindness demonstrates that you sometimes have to be blind to truly see the full picture.

What rules the world of Oedipus Rex – free will or fate? Does Oedipus have any control over what happened to him?

Oedipus has no control over what happened to him; the point of this story is to show that your destiny is predetermined and that fighting against fate only ends in suffering. In one part of the story, Oedipus speaks to the Chorus saying, “You pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers.” When he says this he is speaking as if he is above the gods. This is arrogant because it is disrespectful to the gods and is Oedipus’s way of saying that he is responsible for controlling everything that happens to him. Clearly this is not true because neither Oedipus nor his father were able to control the events that happened to them. Only at the end of the story, after he blinds himself, does he truly realize that fate is not in his own hands. He says, “O god-all come true, all burst to light! O light-now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last-cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!” This indicates that he finally realizes what he did wrong and that he suffered because he avoided the will of the gods.