Oedipus Part II

First of all, I must say that I love the irony in the fact that Oedipus becomes blind at the end, after ridiculing the prophet for the same thing. As far as fate goes, I honestly believe that  Oedipus nor his parents could change his fate.  I think that he was doomed from the beginning and fate wasn’t the question in the story, but when the fate would play out. Even if parents did not abandon him and raised him and taught him who his parents are and that it is wrong to kill your father and sleep with your mother, it would have happened eventually. Maybe it wouldn’t play out the same way it did in the play, but it would have definitely happened one way or another, because that was simply his fate.  On his way of avoiding his tragic fate, he killed the man who later turned out to be his father, which proves that even though he tried to avoid what was meant to happen, he made it happen even faster than it should have maybe. I wonder what would have happened if he was never found on the hill or if he let the king go and did not kill him?

I love the little twist within the play, when Oedipus freaks out about killing a man on the street and then finds out that his father actually died from natural causes. That’s when he relaxes and realizes that he did not kill his father. However, only a few seconds later he also finds out that the man he thought was his father is NOT his real father, and his minute of happiness is gone. Could you imagine finding everything out about your life and your family in just a matter of minutes or hours and finding out that what you thought was your life and who you thought your family was if far from the actual truth? Wow!! It really sucks to be Oedipus!

As far as Oedipus’ tragic flaws go, I think his tragic flaws were his curiosity. If he wasn’t as hungry for knowledge as he was, maybe he would have let go of finding out the truth and even though it would bother him that he doesn’t know, at least he would have been saved of the awful truth and poking out his eyes. However, how many people would actually not want to find out something when they are told that they shouldn’t know the truth. It’s like telling someone you can go everywhere in this house but the room upstairs, you don’t want to know what in there.  Would you actually take that advice or would it bug you that you are forbidden to enter the mysterious room? I would like to say that I would take the advice, but most likely human nature would make me go into the room to see what is going on. The same goes for Oedipus. Even though he was told not to fish for the truth, I think that is what sparked his curiosity even more which lead him to an even bigger disaster.