Misconception in Oedipus the King :: Oedipus Rex Essays

Misconception in Oedipus the King         In many plays a character has a misconception of his her self and/or his or her world.  When this misconception is destroyed it can be a major turning point in the story.  Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is one much(prenominal) story.  In the story Oedipus has such a misconception where he thinks he has a good life, but really his life is morally wrong.  This contributes to the theme or themes of the play when they serve as the defining climax of the story.  When the misconception is stopped Oedipus sees that you cannot hunt or change your past, but you can still do spacious things even if you have been evil or immoral in your life.         When Oedipus was innate(p) it was prophesied that he would kill his father and marry his mother.  His father naturally feared this and told a shepard to take the boy out and kill him when he was still a child.  The kind old shepard could not bring himself to kill a open little boy so he gave him to a passing courier to take as his own.  When Oedipus was older he learned of this prophecy and unexpended home because he loved his foster father who he believed to be his real father.  A while after he ran away he traveling down a road when he saw a coach coming.  It contained his true father, King Laios of Thebes and his bodyguards.  When they almost ran him over Oedipus attacked them killing the bodyguards and his father, thought process that they were highway bandits, and by doing so he unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy.  When he realizes this he is devastated.  This really contributes to the theme, that you cannot escape your past.  The fact that he killed a pansy and his father no less, is a major factor in his transferral later in the story.         When he discovers that King Laios was his real father he sees that by not running away that he could have prevented this alone catastrophe.  This just goes to show that hindsight is always 20/20, Oedipus saw this and realized his mistake.  Him realizing that he cannot go back and change his past is also a forged