Your Name
March 12, 2012
Ms. Carlson
English II Honors (Period 4)
Cause-and-Effect Essay
Title
Oedipus Rex is an epic tragedy that shows the downfall of a great
king. The city of Thebes has been under
a plague, and Oedipus is determined to discover the cause. To his surprise, he is the cause of this
tragedy. This is Sophocles’s way of
using irony to show it is impossible to escape your fate.
Although thought to
be merciful, the birth of Oedipus led to many mistakes. Oedipus was given away by his mother to be
killed. His parents knew of his
prophecy, and did not want to follow through.
The man he was given to would not kill him and fixed his hurt swollen
legs. He thought he was helping and
being merciful towards the baby, but in reality he set way for the prophecy to
be fulfilled.
Another use of irony
in this play is when Oedipus flees Corinth to escape his prophecy, which is to
kill his father. He leaves Corinth but
ends up meeting his real father, Laius.
Unknowingly, he kills Laius, fulfilling his prophecy.
The sphinx riddle
was ironic because it sealed the fate on his prophecy. It caused him to become kind. A disease came upon the city of Thebes. So he saved the city to cause it to become
diseased.
In conclusion,
Sophocles exemplifies that you cannot escape your fate. Once Oedipus unravels the truth, he then
displays pain and sorrow at the decline of his life. We, as a group, believe Oedipus unraveling
his fate brought on careless emotions.
Avoiding his fate only brought his suffering in the end.
Your Name
March 12, 2012
Ms. Carlson
English II Standard
Cause-and-Effect Essay
Title
As a result of
Oedipus’s search for the truth, he has messed up his life. He caused Jocasta to kill herself. He blinded himself in both eyes. Creon becomes kind of Thebes, and his family
becomes broken. E has not only ruined
his life but yet many others.
During the search
for the truth, Oedipus has set out to find, Jocasta got very sick of it and
demanded him to stop. While Oedipus was
talking to the chorus about how Jocasta’s actions of becoming suddenly
emotional made them wonder what she was thinking. When Jocasta had left and they were wondering
where she went. The second messenger had
come out to tell them the breaking news.
Queen Jocasta had hung herself and misery to some.
Oedipus’s own
tragedies and conflict leads him to a life of darkness. His thinking that his wife killed herself
because of him makes him do things that lead him to pain. Oedipus sticks needles in his eyelids until
blood and tears ran down his face. After
he does this tragic thing to himself, he was saying he doesn’t deserve to see
after making all the conflicts he created.
As a result of
Oedipus being banished, running away, and stabbing his eyes out, he has ruined
his family. When Jocasta killed hreself,
she took away a mother from her children.
Oedipus runs away after the prophecy tells him he will kill his dad and
marry his mom. It all results of the
life he had when he was a child.
Oedipus blinds
himself, Creon returns to the kingdom.
Creon becomes kind and doesn’t want to but banishes Oedipus anyway. Because he wants to save his kingdom, he
allows Oedipus wishes and promises to take care of his family. His anger changes to pity as he sees him, he
forgives him. Creon gets the life he
doesn’t want and finally becomes king.
At the end of Oedipus’s
story, his life was in a shambles.
Jocasta kills herself after she told Oedipus to stop his search for the
truth. Because she did not want to be
known now that she has realized the truth.
When Oedipus finds Jocasta dead, he blinds himself, and by degree he
banished himself as well. Oedipus asks
Creon to become kind of Thebes and take care of his family.
Your Name
March 12, 2012
Ms. Carlson
English II Honors (Period 2)
Cause-and-Effect Essay
Irony is the term
that is used when reality becomes the complete opposite of your
expectations. In the Greek play of
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles uses irony to convey the fact that you can’t escape your
fate. Oedipus was given a prophecy that
he would slay his father and lay with his mother, but all of the characters
tried to prevent this. His parents to
kill him to protect themselves, he left his him to protect his father, and he
married a queen to protect his mother.
Ironically, none of this could derail his father.
Oedipus is saved by
the herdsman, causing him to best set up for all the misfortune that destroyed
his life. The herdsman rescued Oedipus
because he didn’t think it was necessary to kill him. Little did he know, killing him would have
been the better choice. Oedipus staying
alive kept him on the path to killing his father and marrying his mother. Saving Oedipus kept the prophecy alive.
In the beginning, it
was prophesized that Oedipus was going to kill his father. When Oedipus hears about this prophecy, he
tries to leave his home in Corinth to escape his fate. This is ironic because on the way out of
town, the prophecy is fulfilled—Oedipus kills his father. However, the person he killed was not someone
he had ever met before. Oedipus had been
left on a hillside as a baby so never knew his biological dad. Oedipus believed the prophecy was talking
about his adoptive father. It just so
happened that Oedipus’s true father, Liaus, was one of the travelers he met on
his way to Thebes and one of the people he killed that day.
Jocasta and Oedipus
married each other without realizing that they were mother and son. Oedipus comes into town not realizing his
life had begun there. Solving the riddle
of the sphinx, his life hit a turning point in the town of Thebes. Solving this riddle gave him the spot as
king. Jacosta, his mother, was
queen. Not realizing what he was
getting himself into, he married his
mother.
Sophocles’s use of
irony in the play of Oedipus Rex falls perfectly into Oedipus’s life. The way irony is inserted in the play leads
to the cause and effect in his life.
Being saved as a child by a herdsman allowed him to run away and marry
his real mother, unknowingly fulfilling the prophecy. Sophocles incorporated situational irony and
dramatic irony to really set up the misfortune in Oedipus’s life.