1. Alex Dilling Jason Scott Sarina Bridges Megan Le
Oedipus the King
Alex Dilling
Jason Scott
Sarina Bridges
Megan Le

2. Prompt
In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” Choose a character from “Oedipus the King” who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole.

3. Literal Meaning of Topic
The literal meaning of the prompt and topic is how someone views their own moral standards and their willingness to do whatever it takes to make something they feel is wrong, right. This is apparent in Oedipus because he knows it is wrong that someone, specifically a king, to murdered in cold blood without consequence. His form of justice is to curse whoever the culprit is and ban them from the land, a punishment he feels will fit the crime. After the realization that he is the criminal the immediate events suggest that he has been cursed and he even upholds his own banishment. Oedipus quest for justice drives the story because the investigation is what sets the story in motion from him realizing he is married to his mom to his self-blinding.

4. Dramatic Irony
"So I now proclaim to all of you, citizens of Thebes: whoever among you knows by whose hand Laius son of Labdacus was killed, I order him to reveal the whole truth to me" (Sophocles 14). Oedipus is looking for justice in Laius's murder. Audience knows that Oedipus is the murderer.

5. Symbolism- Crossroads
"The country is called Phocis: two roads, one from Delphi and one from Daulia, come together and form one" (Sophocles 51). Generally, crossroads represent fate. This holds true in Oedipus the King where Oedipus unknowingly makes the decision to kill his father and fulfill the prophecy.

6. Tragic Hero
"Blind instead of seeing, beggar instead of rich, he will make his way to foreign soil, feeling his way with a stick" (Sophocles 31). Oedipus's success in finding Laius's murderer leads to his downfall from king to outcast.

7. Examples From the Text
"As for the murderer himself, I call down a curse on him, whether that unknown figure be one man or one among many. May he drag out an evil death-in-life in misery" (Sophocles 15).

8. Example 2
"What I have done was the best thing to do … I have done things to them both for which hanging is too small a punishment" (Sophocles 98).

9. Significant Moment #1
"I tell you, you will pay for this witch-hunting, you and Creon, the man that organized this conspiracy." (Sophocles 27)
After being told by Tiresias that he is the murderer he is after, Oedipus offers an aggressive rebuttal that Creon conspired for Oedipus to be thrown out of Thebes for the murder. By saying this, Oedipus essentially holds Creon accountable for the murder.
This marks a significant moment in the novel where Oedipus has his first primary suspect for the murder of Laius.

10. Significant Moment 2
"Since I am so full of dreadful expectation, I shall hold nothing back from you. Who else should I speak to, who means more to me than you, in this time of trouble." (Sophocles 55)
At this point in the story Oedipus finally realizes that he maybe the murderer he's been after this whole time. After hearing the details and the location of the murder at three crossroads, Oedipus recalls when he killed several men at the same crossroads. He then shifts his focus to himself, making himself his own prosecutor.

11. Significant Moment 3
"He ripped out the golden pins with which her clothes were fastened, raised them high above his head, speared the pupils of his eyes" (Sophocles 93).
Once Oedipus realizes that he wasn’t able to avoid the prophecy of murdering his father, marrying his mother, and being responsible for the plague, he is disgusted with himself and stabs his own eyes using Jocasta's pins.
He claims he will suffer more by blinding himself than by suicide, making himself his own judge.

12. Citations Slide 8: Oedipus the King, pg. 27