Oedipus Rex Comparisons

The book, Oedipus Rex, has a full range of characters. The colloquy, activity and motivation circle around the characters in the whole story. We find Oedipus Rex trying to get away, from home, to flee the prophecy. The prophecy states that he will kill his father and marry his mother. He also tries to clear up a murder of the old king. Oedipus marries a widow named Iokaste. He also gets advice from a seer named Teiresias. The purpose of this essay is to show the three positive and three negative qualities about these characters in direct and indirect characterization. I will find the qualities of Oedipus, Iokaste and Teiresias.

What is the definition of “to see”? I can see you over there. I see what you mean. As someone is watching a movie, they get frightened at the sight and quickly cover their eyes. As people, we are sometimes unable to uncover the real truth. Sometimes the blind can see better than other people who actually have the sight. Oedipus fails to see the truth but Teiresias could see it very clearly. He knows Oedipus was blind and left him. “You call me unfeeling. If you could only see the nature of your own feelings,” says Teiresias (page119). This is a motif in the book. Oedipus has been ignorant in his lifetime. When Teiresias reveals the truth to him, he doesn’t believe him. “I say that you are the murderer whom you seek,” says Teiresias (page119). He also believes that Teiresias was with Kreon, and he was trying to get rid of him. He is very quick to judge people. Oedipus is disrespectful through the whole story. He talked with rage, when he was speaking to Teiresias and Kreon. “Am I to bear this from him? Out of this place! Out of my sight,” yells Oedipus to Teiresias (page120). “No, not exile. It is your death I want, so that the entire world may see what treason means,” says Oedipus to Kreon. Those were his negative qualities. Oedipus is also known for his intelligence. He solved the riddle of the sphinx and married Iokaste who was impressed. He goes around trying to achieve knowledge. Oedipus was a caring person to his people. As the ruler, he speaks directly to them and actually solves their problems as if they were his own. “Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I. Each of you suffers in himself alone. His anguish, not another’s; but my spirit groans for the city, for myself, for you,” says Oedipus (page116). Oedipus liked to solve mysteries like Sherlock Holmes. He wanted to find the person who killed the old king and send them away. “If any man knows by whose hand Laios met his death, I direct that man to tell me everything,” says Oedipus to the Thebians (page118). Those were his three positive qualities.

There are people who keep secrets about other people so they may never find out. It may be something personal, “I stole the candy bar from the store,” or something that involves the country, “Some illegal immigrants have been coming from the south and have been getting jobs.” Iokaste has been secretive through most of the story. She is unwilling to tell Oedipus of his past and tries to stop him from finding it for himself. “Why think of him? Forget this herdsman. Forget it all. This talk is a waste of time,” says Iokaste (page128). She probably also saw the scars on his ankles and kept it a secret. It shouldn’t have taken long to notice that Oedipus was her son. Oedipus believes that Iokaste has a lot of pride. “The Queen, like a woman, is perhaps ashamed to think of my low origin,” says Odysseus (page128). Iokaste was a liar. She told Oedipus the wrong idea about how Laios died. “Laios was killed by marauding strangers where three highways meet; but his child had not been three days in this world before the king had pierced the baby’s ankles and left him to die on a lonely mountainside,” says Iokaste (page124). She uses the word “strangers” meaning that one person could not have killed Laios, so the prophecy could not have been fulfilled. Those would be her negative qualities. Iokaste is faithful to the gods, mainly Apollo. She prays to Apollo to make sure Oedipus does not try to find his past even thought she tries to defy him through the prophecy. “Apollo, since you are nearest, I turn in prayer. Our hearts are heavy with fear when we see our leader distracted, as helpless sailors are terrified by the confusion of their helmsman,” says Iokaste (page126). She is also kind to the people of the town and people who come into the area. Iokaste does not have a temper or go into rage when angry. “I wish as much for you: your courtesy deserves a like good fortune,” says Iokaste (page126). Iokaste is a quick thinker. She always asks Oedipus questions to make him