Oedipus And Job Essay, Research Paper

Comparing and Contrasting Oedipus and Job

The Book of Job and Oedipus and King are very similar stories in that both characters in each story suffer a very big downfall. In these two stories you see the characters and how they deal with adversity. The one who keeps faith and looks toward a better life is usually the person who will come out on top.

Oedipus was a character that committed some horrible and disgusting crimes. Throughout the whole story he himself causes his own downfall. Oedipus portrays a lack of patients. Oedipus wants to put an end to all this commotion as soon as he can. He threatens to kill anyone with holding information of the murder of Laios. Tiresias is playing games with Oedipus by testing his patients with what he knows. If Oedipus would have been patient with Tiresias he might not have been so upset about the information he was told. Oedipus s anger is another trait that did not help him. He got angry with Tiresias when he will not tell Oedipus what he knows. Oedipus s anger shows when he tells Tiresias that he is stone-blind and has lost all of his power. As Oedipus s anger comes out he begins to show the people his true self and it slowly leads to his downfall. Oedipus s truthfulness also led to his decline of power. When Oedipus finally realizes what has happened he doesn t hide any evidence, which leads him to his fall. Oedipus could have denied all the evidence and gotten rid of Tiresias and no one else would have probably said anything. Oedipus deals with his downfall very bad in this story. To top in all off, he gauges out his eyes so he wouldn t see the pain he brought all of the townspeople. This was a very cowardly act but it seemed like the only thing he could ve done at that point.

Jobs downfall was mainly based on the test that the Devil and God planned. Job was classified as a perfect guy with a lot of fortune. The Devil went to God and told him that maybe Job wouldn t be so perfect if he didn t have all this fortune. So the devil and God took away his animals, and put boils on his skin just to see if Job would still have faith in god. Job s friends also didn t help the situation by going against him. Job s friends were telling him he must have done something wrong to deserve these tragedies. They didn t believe that Job did nothing wrong. Job deals with this downfall in the best possible way. Most people that lose their children would lose faith in God but Job turned something bad into good. Job also stands up to his friends and tells them he didn t do anything. At one point Job questions God. God responds by screaming at Job. Job then apologizes and tells God about how faithful he is. Job s faithfulness to God leads to Job getting back to a wonderful life again.

One thing I could say people have to do when in a downfall is pick themselves back up. You can t control some of the things that happen in life but it s how you deal with those problems after they happen. For example, when my grandfather died my whole family was sad. After he died my dad was saying what a great guy he was and how he died a happy man. Sometimes you have to take a bad situation and turn it into a

positive one, because it s the only healthy thing to do. My family was sad that he died but we accepted it and could cherish the wonderful things he brought to our lives.

From these stories I have learned to always stay positive because that s the only way you will succeed in life. A person with confidence and determination will most likely always come out on top. Without confidence you cannot get anything accomplished. You always have to believe in yourself. This statement is true for any job you do. I also learned to have faith in god even though things might not go as you planned. Somethings happen for a reason and nobody can change that. I also learned to listen to others more often because a lot of the times, if you re friend tells you something they re right. Sometimes friends can see something in you that you are not willing to see.