The Punishment of the King/Oedipus Rex

        At the discontinue of Sophocles Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, king of Thebes, ends up banished forever from his kingdom. summing up altogethery, Oedipus physically puts out his own eyes, for several reasons which will be discussed later. The challenge is: Did Oedipus deserve his punishments? There are many factors that must(prenominal) be considered in answering this, including how Oedipus himself felt about his situation. His blazing was as much symbolic as it was physical pain. later all factors cod been considered, I think that exactly Oedipus ban was the requisite punishment..                  It is important to keep in mind the wholly sanctioned reasoning for Oedipus search for Laius killers: he wished to put an end to a deadly plague, and that plague would unless be halt when verbalise murderer is killed, or driven from the land (pp 4-5). Thusly, when it is revealed that Oedipus himself dispatch Laius, because banishme nt seems to be the plainly(prenominal) option. Death, in my mind, is non logical simply because of what it might do to the kingdoms people. correct though it seems that Oedipus has not been a particularly good monarch, in fact his only major accomplishment seems to be killing the Sphinx all those former(a) age ago, having a king put to death could have knockout repercussions on the rest of the kingdom.

So in the end, the only manner to cure the plague and keep the kingdom perpetual seems to be the banishment of Oedipus. In this case, the question of whether or not he deserved to be punished seems irrelevan t; Oedipus only last was to stop the plague! and by leaving, he has realized that goal. ostracism was the only choice.         But what exactly was Oedipus being punished for? Even after re-reading the play, this still seems to be a colour area. Incest? Immoral, to... If you deprivation to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: write my paper