Answer to Question 1
- Oedipus displays a fair amount of pride and self-satisfaction, boasting of his past accomplishments and implying thereby that he is above reproach and not to be questioned or challenged. But perhaps his greatest flaw, one that runs directly counter to the classical Greek emphasis on moderation and self-restraint, is his tendency toward impulsiveness, his rashness, his quickness to anger. He demonstrates this characteristic throughout the play, in his accusations and threats against Tereisias (lines 374380, 403404) and against Creon (687688), along with his readiness to believe, on no evidence whatsoever, that everyone is plotting against him (420426, 585600). He shows this same choleric nature when he threatens the shepherd with torture and even death if he doesnt answer the kings questions quickly enough (12181229).
Answer to Question 2To our sensibilities, the plague seems excessive and unfair. Why should the entire society suffer for the sins of one man (if, indeed, he has actually sinned)? But it should be recalled that, according to the oracle, one of the reasons for the plague is that the murderer of King Laius remains undetected and unpunished, continuing to live in the city, prospering, and enjoying good reputation. Also, the plague reinforces a dramatic point, helping to explain why the classical concept of tragedy involves rulers and other powerful figures; unlike the actions of an ordinary person, whose failures and misfortunes would affect only loved ones and immediate associates, the troubles and especially the flaws of an authority figure reverberate throughout society, and the restoration of civil order at the end of most tragedies symbolizes the restoration of moral order as well.
We should bear in mind that the modern monotheistic concept of a just and loving god was not the operative belief system in the ancient world. With no expectation of an afterlife whose purpose was to redeem suffering and redress balances by rewarding virtue and punishing wickedness, the ancients confronted an existence that was often arbitrary, harsh, and cruel by imagining a pantheon of gods who willed things to be as they are. Their purposes may at times be inscrutable and unfathomable, but their power is absolute and they are to be honored and obeyed, held in awe, and treated with reverence, as is made clear throughout the play, especially in the choral odes. Jocasta and Oedipuss dismissal of prophecy, and their consequent discounting of the will of the gods, are portrayed as grave lapses. An obvious analogue is the magnificent Book of Job in the Old Testament: while Job laments his afflictions and wishes for an explanation of them, he never doubts Gods absolute authority to treat him as He sees fit; Jobs three comforters, who maintain that God blesses the just and curses the unjust, are divinely rebuked in the end for having arrogantly presumed to understand the will of God.
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