Oedipus Rex Analysis

I realize this is asking quite a bit, but if anybody could proofread this and give me some helpful hints, I need to rewrite it for my world lit class!! Thankyou (:

            Socrates believed that one could not be virtuous without first having the knowledge of what virtue is. Once this knowledge has been obtained, one could not help but be virtuous since no one voluntarily does wrong. Socrates believed that one could gain knowledge only through the active use of one’s own mind rather than being taught from another. That being said, Socrates would’ve found Oedipus to be a person who is not truly knowledgeable or virtuous in any way. Oedipus makes rash and irresponsible decisions very spur of the moment. He appears to have good intentions, but each of his decisions result in pain or misunderstanding.

            One of the biggest issues that Socrates would have had with Oedipus would have been the fact that Oedipus never truly thought through his decisions. His abilities to attain knowledge were slim to none. One of Oedipus’ first errors in judgment was his haste to make his power known to the people of Thebes. After they had come to him, begging for help because their city had been going through famine and disease, Oedipus immediately had Creon see the oracle for help. The oracle stated that the murderer of Laios was the cause of the city’s plight, and it would be over as soon as the murderer was put to justice. Oedipus made a statement that those who had any knowledge regarding the murder of Laios would be ostracized from the city. The person would no longer be allowed to live anywhere except on the streets, and even there, they would be spit upon and ignored. Oedipus had sent for Teiresias, a blind man who was said to have insight and knowledge that others didn’t. Teirisias had heard Oedipus make his decree and refused to tell Oedipus any knowledge he may have had. Socrates would have thought this was extremely irresponsible. Oedipus never thought his idea through, and once he made the punishment known, he could not take it back. Oedipus thought that he was being clever, but he really just ruined everything for himself.

            After his exchange with Tierisias, Oedipus sends for the Shepherd who witnessed and survived the king’s murder. He is approached by a Messenger who has come to tell Oedipus of his parents’ deaths in Corinth. Once Oedipus hears this, he is overjoyed by thinking he has escaped his oracle he had heard many years ago. The oracle had said he was to marry his mother and murder his father. Little did Oedipus know that in attempting to run away from his oracle, he quite literally ran right into it, fulfilling it himself. Socrates would have found this to be extremely unknowledgeable, and therefore not virtuous, because never once did Oedipus gain the knowledge he needed to understand. Of course, the reader can tell that Oedipus’ vice is completely unintentional.

            After Oedipus meets with the Shepard and the Messenger, he discovers his own vice, and is devastated. In trying to run away, he had entered a city in which he had become both incestuous and murderous and he didn’t even realize it. He had married his own mother and borne children by her. Oedipus’ terrible discovery leads him to gauge out his own eyes, because he simply couldn’t stand to see the horrors his world was coming to. This would have been the ultimate act of unintentional vice. Oedipus finally gained the knowledge that would have made him virtuous had he chosen to approach these issues in a better way. His ridiculous reaction to everything that had occurred simply added on to his own vice.

            Socrates would have seen in Oedipus a king that had every opportunity to gain the knowledge he needed in order to be considered virtuous. However, Oedipus’ actions and decisions he made throughout the play simply prove that Oedipus didn’t have any true knowledge. He was a king who had no virtue, but who never intended to be that way. He eventually gained the knowledge he needed to be virtuous, but he gained this knowledge far too late.

Author's Note

My teacher already graded it. I got a C- (*sad face*) and I can get a better grade if I do corrections. So hit me hard with criticism! And DON'T IGNORE GRAMMER! Haha, please tell me all mistakes. (Topic is in an earlier post.)