Oedipus - Freewill
...es of their troubles and have it unfold in front of their eyes. If he alone could destroy the plague, there would be no question that Oedipus was their savior. When Oedipus learns how to cure the plague he acts immediately. At first he is gentle in his questioning to find Laius’ killer. He begins with an effort the lure the offender with kindness. He benevolently asks him to show himself and go quietly into exile. After getting no response from the crowd he gets angry and curses the murderer “ Let no crops grow out of the earth for them – shrivel their women, kill their sons, burn them to nothing in this plague that hits us now, or something even worse”(308). This is harsh but we start to see that Oedipus has a bad temper. This is not the only time we see his anger. When confronted with the initial accusation that he is the one who murdered Laius, Tiresias the blind seer points out “You criticize my temper . . . unaware of the one you live with, you revile me.”(383) Still, we see it most in the account Oedipus gives of Laius’ death: After being forced off the road by the driver of Laius’ wagon he strikes the driver “in anger”(891). When Laius witnesses what has happened and attacks Oedipus, Oedipus “pays him back with interest”(894). After the ordeal is over he finishes by saying “I killed them all – every mother’s son”(898). With his anger as a driving force he has made another sorry decision in the slaying of his, unknown at the time, father. If Oedipus was not a short tempered man he might have chosen to wait on the side of the road as the king’s caravan passed, leaving everyone alive and healthy. Or another choice he could have made at the time he first saw the oracle telling him of his role in the death of his father might have been never to kill men or never to kill anybody regardless of sex. Oedipus is also shows himself as a proud and selfish man. When searching for Laius’ killer we see that Oedipus’ motives are not completely altruistic but they are also self-centered, he states “Whoever killed the king may decide to kill me too, with the same violent hand – by avenging Laius, I defend myself”(158) he wants to find the murderer in order to protect himself. Later, after meeting with the seer, Oedipus concocts an idea that Creon and the seer were conspiring together to have him shamefully banished which would then allow Creon to assume the throne. He is paranoid about loosing his noble positi...