Surname 1
Name:
Tutor:
Course:
Date:
English
The downfall of Oedipus was led by the character’s tragic flaws of anger and pride. Many
people have argued that his flaw was his anger. However, I feel that his weakness was the pride
he had as an individual, which led to his downfall. His rage emerged when his ego was attacked
or demoralized by the people around him. For instance, Oedipus looked for help from Creon
during the difficult time of plague, who told him that the murder of the king was the cause of the
plague. Thus, the murderer must have been killed as well to ensure that justice prevailed. He
continued to seek help form Tiresias, the prophet, but was afraid of telling Oedipus the truth of
the matter since he was aware that Oedipus was the murderer of Laius and married his mother
thereby resulting in the plague (Barstow 2).
He discovered the truth later thus, became outraged towards Creon and Tiresias, who he
thought wanted to take over the throne. However, Creon noted that before his anger had taken
over him. Therefore, he warned him that his anger was his worst enemy “I’ll go, and they have
known my innocence. Your temper is your own worst enemy” (Barstow 3). Instead of embracing
the truth and fate that was sealed at birth, he let his emotions cloud his judgment, which resulted
in his fall. He was overruled by his ego that prevented him from seeing beyond his past thus,
learned from it. Oedipus’ personality is different from his father’s because he believed in other
