Oedipus' Ruin Sophocles is perhaps one of the greatest tragedians ever. Sophocles said that a man should never consider himself fortunate unless he can look back on his life and remember that life without pain. For Oedipus Rex, looking back is impossible to do without pain. This pain stems from his prideful life. Oedipus is aware that he alone is responsible for his actions. Oedipus freely chooses to pursue and accept his own life's destruction. …showed first 75 words of 920 total…

…showed last 75 words of 920 total…A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Michael J. O'Brien. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 17-29. Knox, Bernard M.W. The Heroic Temper: Studied in Sophocean Tragedy. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1964. Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Illinois: Passport Books, 1988. Sewall, Richard B. The Vision of Tragedy. London: Yale University Press, 1959. 25- 43. Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." Perrines's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 7th ed. Ed. Thomas R. Arp. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1998. 948-953.