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Oedipus

Student's Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Name and Number

Instructor's Name

Date
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Oedipus
The central theme of 'Oedipus, the King' is that actions have consequences; however, that

does not imply that a particular action would lead to a particular consequence. It simply means

that one set of action might cause something entirely different to happen, which could form part

of the fulfilment of our destiny.

When Oedipus decides to kill the strangers on the road after refusing to let them pass, he

ends up killing his father unknowingly, yet he was running away from home in an attempt to

prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. The

consequence of his action of running away in order to avoid killing his father leads to Oedipus

killing his birth father and marrying the mother leading to the fulfilment of his tragic destiny.

When Oedipus curses the one responsible for killing the former king Laius after the oracle

confirms that the killer was the one responsible for the plague ravishing Thebes, he just speaks

his doom because fate would have it; he was the one who had killed the king. Therefore, the

consequences of his actions of killing his father and marrying his mother result in Oedipus

blinding himself and Jocasta, his mother, hanging herself (Nikolarea, 2021). When the oracle

tells Laius that his son would be responsible for his death, he still goes ahead to have a child. The

action of going ahead to have a child despite being warned that he would die in his child’s hands

leads to the death of Laius despite his efforts to get rid of the child.
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References

Nikolarea, E. (2021). Athenian Law and Classical Greek Tragedy: The Case of Oedipus the

King. Law & Literature, 1-24.