Jenny Doan

Period 1
12-13-11
Oedipus Rex Essay

Finding out the truth is never easy. Once you find out, its going to be hard to forget.
Knowing the truth will cause pain to your own self and to others. Oedipus Rex, a royal son, who
grew up as an adopted child, and grew up not knowing the truth. He began to uncover in his
quest for knowledge and reveals his true identity that brings about his downfall.
You are not of the immortal gods, we know; ll.35. Oedipus who is the son of royal
himself considered himself as the son of gods. Even if Oedipus isnt an immortal god, the priest
went to Oedipus to ask him to answer his prayers. To stop the plague and to kill the Sphinx.
When Oedipus killed the Sphinx, he was crown as Thebes for saving them. And married Jocasta
who was the Queen of Thebes.
Day by day Oedipus still wonder, still wanting to know the truth more then he ever has.
People surrounding him knows everything but himself. Oedipus is still wishing that the prophecy
wouldnt come true. Hoping that he wouldnt kill his birth father and marry his mother. The
word is that the people of Isthmus intend to call Oedipus to be their king. ll. 894-895. When the
messenger came to tell him the news that king Polybus died of sickness and because of aging, he
was relief and happy. Knowing that he wasnt the one who killed his father. But yet, he still
worry about being married to his mother. The prophet can not be true if he didnt kill his father.
As that question comes to Oedipus, he began to find out the truth slowly.
Polybus was not your father ll. 964. Oedipus in shock and afraid that, if Polybus wasnt
his birth father, then who was. There would only lead to one thing. Which is, Merope and
Polybus was his adopted parents. Oedipus began to worry again. Worried that he killed his birth
father and marry his mother. But then, he remember that along the road, he killed a man. A man
who he did not know. And the men he didnt know that was King Laius. King Laius who was the
King of Thebes before Oedipus was crowned king. And King Laius was Oedipus birth father.
The revelation that Oedipus went through uncover these weaknesses that brings him to a
downfall. It reveal to him that he was adopted. Not to mention, he found out that his birth parent
gave him to a shepherd to leave him on Mountain Citheran to die. Also, to find out that he killed
his own father and married his mother, having 3 kids with Jocasta. What a dramatic tragedy. The
pain that case Oedipus to his quest for knowledge. And the deaths of his love ones for what he
have done.