The first question to answer is whether or not Oedipus was an insolent tyrant, which means selfish leader who is only doing things for personal gain and does not care what happens to his people. We can go right to the beginning of the play to look at his leadership skills. The priest’s pleas to Oedipus to help his people get rid of the plague as he did once before. The priest uses phrases to describe Oedipus such as ‘our greatest power’, ‘we do rate you first of men’ and quotes the story to the Sphinx. Oedipus’s reaction to these words should also be taken into account, saying to the priest’s ‘I pity you’, ‘…not one is as sick as I’ and also the fact that he sent Creon already to Delphi to speak with Tiresias a blind prophet. The priest’s phrase for Oedipus shows his respect and admiration for Oedipus, which shows him as a good leader rather then a tyrant. Oedipus’ reaction also shows him as a good leader of his people as he is caring and has a willingness to act on behalf of saving his people from the plague. We can also look at the end of the play, when Oedipus has finally found out who he is and his fate. Despite what he’s been through he still puts his people first and leaves the city. During his speech to Creon he refers to him as ‘…my king’ showing how he is giving up his place on the thrown and tells him ‘do one more thing more, for your sake, not mine, drive me out of this land at once’. This shows that even though he is blind he is getting Creon to remove him from the land for the sake of his people, for he is the murderer of Laius and as long as he is within Thebes the plague will continue. This shows that he isn’t using his leadership for personal gain, even though he has noting much to live for and would believe the gods hate him already so if he were to take advantage of his leadership he has nothing much to loose really, but his self sacrifice to save his people shows how is almost the opposite of a tyrant.
It is important to look a the individual characteristics of Oedipus before looking at whether he deserved or aggravated his fate, and how the audience at the time would of sympathized with him. He shows bother positive and negative virtues in this play but through out I think he is a caring, respectful and self-sacrificing character who wants to help his people. He first shows this during his speech to the priest saying ‘I pity you’ showing his sadness that his people are suffering with this plague. Also, after he has blinded himself, he wishes to hug his children before he is finally sent away and tells Creon to look after then like his own, showing he is doing what best for the children. Also, during his first consultation with the oracle, he is a first very respectful to Tiresias and to what he has to say about the plague, which the audience at the time would of like as a characteristic for Oedipus to be respectful of Oracles. He is also a man of action, in the scene when the priest asks Oedipus for help; he has already sent Creon to Delphi to ask for help in order to help remove the plague from Thebes. He is also intelligent as he solved the riddle of the sphinx which the priest describes in the play. However, as the play progresses, these characteristics that make him a heroic character become the faults that aggravate his own fate. One of his negative virtues is his curiosity, which coupled with the positive virtue of him being a man of action; turns his curiosity to find out the truth to an obsession to learn about his ancestry, making him blind to the warnings from the people around him to let it go. Also his intelligence turns against him as he starts to jump to conclusions when the oracle don’t when to help him, and formulates a plot against his throne with no real evidence, this also show his quick temperament which stems out of a want to help his people.
I am now going to look at the different reasons why Oedipus may or may not have deserved his fate before coming to my final conclusion. First it is important to consider that he did kill his father and marry his mother, so regardless as to what kind of character he was, he did it and therefore needed to find out and be punished for it. It can also be seen that the reason he found out was down to his bad traits and therefore could have been prevented if he had kept respectful to the oracle and believed what people had to say, he therefore would of only been banished and would never of found out about his terrible fate, which only happed because he was too curious and too pushy to the people around him, jumping to conclusions and never slowing down to look at the facts. However, he did solve the riddle of the sphinx and saved a lot of people, it doesn’t seem right that he should have a fate as he did after saving Thebes from plague. This was seemingly transpired against his since before he was born to marry his mother and kill his father, and it would seem that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Also his ignorance to his heritage mean that he had know idea he was committing such a hubristic act, therefore how could the audience see his as a disgraceful character, but rather just an unlucky one as it were.
To conclude, I believe that he wasn’t an insolent tyrant, he was a good king who cared about his people and in the end sacrificed his lively hood in order to save them from plague. I believe he was also a good person, who was inelegant and had a willingness to act, and its easy when we know the story to say he should of stopped and was jumping to conclusions, but you have to consider the fact he was completely convinced he knew who his pedants were and that he didn’t kill Laius, so when people refuse to talk and accuse him of killing him, it understandable that he suspects a plot against himself. However, I do believe that he aggravated his own fate, by continually damning himself in his speeches and trying to come to the truth himself rather then relying on others.