How does Oedipus qualify as a noble?

Oedipus qualifies as a noble because he is the son of Theban monarchs Laius and Jocasta. He stands to inherit the throne. To be a noble you have to be born into a family of high social rank and have a noble character, be wealthy and hold a high social position.

What are his admirable qualities?

Oedipus is a noble, a man of swift action, great insight, confident, and an excellent ruler who cares about his people and tries to take care of their needs. At the beginning he saves Thebes from it is the curse of the Sphinx and later the citizens tell him to do something about the plague and he tries to solve the riddle.

What seemed to be his weaknesses?

Oedipus hamarita was that Oedipus always tried to do the right thing but he seemed to be blind to the truth. He has a violent temper because he killed his father, he has excessive pride or hubris, he didn't listen to the Oracle of Delphi who told him that he was destined to kill his father and sleep with his mother and he should have listened to him. The tragic irony that brought peripeteia was when he figured out he killed his father and married his mom.

How is Jocasta’s part crucial to creating horror and pity in the audience?

Jocasta creates pity and the audience because she really doesn't know that she has been in incestuous relationship with her son so she kills herself because she cannot go on living as both a wife and a mother to her son. And she creates horror in the audience because she tied her child's ankles together and sent him off to a mountainside alone when he was a baby.


 

What does his realization include?

Oedipus becomes sad and humbled by his horrible irony and fate. As the Oracle had predicted out he did in fact kill his father and sleep with his mother and when he learns what he had done he chose to live in exile leaving Creon to be the King. He realized that the Oracle had been right all along and that if he hadn't had so much pride he could've just stayed where he started out and be in happy ignorance of who his parents really were and he would've never done these horrible things.

Describe how Sophocles created tension and anticipation of Oedipus’s peripeteia in the audience:

All throughout the play Sophocles talked about blindness. That characters were blind to their fate or blind to the things that are rate in front of them that they refuse to believe and the irony is that at the end of the play Oedipus was literally blinded. If Oedipus had just stayed where he started out he would have never killed his father and married his mother but he made his own fate by trying to figure out if the Oracle was right.

What questions do you have at the end of the play?

I don't know if Oedipus is really a tragic hero. All along he was really only trying to do the right thing. He doesn't have a clue who his parents are. He only tried to help the people around him and he was so worried that he was going to do something wrong that he tried to prevent it. He never did anything evil. He is so disturbed by what the Oracle tells him and he does everything he can to try to make sure that he never hurts anybody so he leaves Corinth and went to Thebes. I also question why such a smart man would marry somebody at least 14 years older than him who is old enough to be his mom and kill somebody old enough to be his dad if he didn't want this prophecy to be true wouldn't you avoid all older women and killing anybody?

Compare Oedipus’s speech at the beginning of the play to his one at the end:

At the beginning of Oedipus the King he is confident because he has just saved Thebes from the curse of the Sphinx and he became a king because he was so brave and smart. He says “here I am myself you all know me, the world knows my fame I am Oedipus”. He will lose all of this confidence by the end of the play because he has killed his father and slept with his mother and knows the irony of this situation and of his downfall. By the end of the play he has blinded himself after finding his wife hanging dead. He has become like the blind prophet whose words he didn't listen to unable to see truth he must be in pain after gouging out his own will eyes that he has left the concerns of the physical world behind to focus on the torment knowing he has done such horrible things so he does not feel it. One of his last quotes at the end of Oedipus the King he says “then take me away. It's time.” He has given up all hope and is resigned to his fate to be exiled forever he feels like he deserves it.