King oedipuss?

Question

does the play show him to be a good man?

Answer 1

I always batted for Oedipus- poor guy! wasn't his fault he married his mother- he had no idea who she was.  and as for  his father, well he wasn't a very nice guy anyway! Oedipus was a hero, human, but generally a good person. (so i think, anyway)

Answer 2

he tried to live a good life...

but as the story goes..

Apollo's oracle told him that he is destined to kill his father..

hence thinking that his step dad is his real one...

he decided to run away to escape his faith in the process killing his own dad...

and as the story develops also marrying his mom....

Answer 3

eh...more of a victim of fate, I'd say. He does do good things. He saves the city from the sphinx, for instance. Unfortunately, he didn't know the queen was his mother until well after the fact, so he blinds himself. I guess that would show his morality...?

Oedipus is a greek hero, so he has noble qualities...but he's flawed.

Answer 4

Yes, definitely!  He comes close to being the ideal man, but as the play unfolds we see how his impulsive temper has led him to do some really horrible things.  Nevertheless, we're shown over and over what a good man, especially a good king, he is.  When his people come to him in the prologue to ask him to do something about the plague afflicting the land, he replies that he has already sent Creon to Delphi to consult the god about it.  Of course this fact enables the play to keep moving briskly along, since Creon returns as Oedipus speaks, but it also shows that Oedipus is concerned and thoughful and takes steps to help his people even before they ask.  

Similarly, when in the first episode the chorus suggests that he send for Teiresias to consult him about the murderer of Laius (whom Creon reports that the oracle said the city must find and punish to end the plague), Oedipus replies that he has already done so, and Teiresias enters a moment later.  

From his conversation with Teiresias on, we see Oedipus becoming more and more upset and distraught and finally violent, but when he ultimately realizes and accepts that HE is the murderer and the reason for the plague, he voluntarily leaves Thebes to keep the plague from afflicting it as well.  It's a rare and high kind of love that can go so far as to leave the beloved alone for its own good.   Oedipus is a good and caring enough ruler that he chooses to make that sacrifice for his people.

Answer 5

He tries to be good but instead he's just overly proud, not to mention incestuous.