Monday, April 6, 2015

In Oedipus Rex, please help identify two instances of indirect characterization of Oedipus.Please include quotes and references.

Since Sophocles followed closely the tragic structure that
required the tragic Hero to have a tragic flaw, it is important, when considering
examples to answer your question, to identify that Oedipus' tragic flaw was his rash and
prideful quick temper.


Beginning on line 673, Creon says to
Oedipus:



I see
you sulk in yielding and you're dangerous


when you are out
of temper; natures like yours


are justly heaviest for
themselves to bear.



And
earlier, Teiresias the seer, says (from line 338):


readability="7">

You blame me my temper but you do not
see


your own that lives within
you



The reason that it is
important the these characters observe that Oedipus is sort-tempered and rash, is that
this is the quality that prompted him to murder his father, Laius, when he met him at a
crossroads and neither would give way to let the other
pass.


It was that murder that led him to Thebes and Jocasta
(his mother) and the kingship that would be his undoing.

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