Felicia Ooi; Oedipus Rex

I found the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex to be a compelling story of self-denial, especially by the main character, Oedipus himself. I felt that Oedipus was initially a very sincere person, who eventually became nothing more than a victim of cruel fate. The Greek society places grave importance on the roles played by oracles and seers and they strongly believe that fate cannot be changed, that your destiny is set out for you.

To me, Oedipus was really nothing more than a victim of his fate. Before he was born he was doomed to kill his father and marry his mother. As a result, his father wanted to kill him as an infant but fate won out and Oedipus grew up as a prince of Corinth instead of as the rightful prince of Thebes. Oedipus too places faith in fate, and because he did not wish to kill his adoptive father and marry his adoptive mother, he headed away from Corinth back to Thebes and from there on sealed his fate.

Oedipus became a character who was willfully blinded, first to the truth about his fate. Soon after he realized the truth, he physically blinded himself because of the great crime he had unintentionally committed. I actually felt quite sorry for Oedipus because he was just trying to avoid the dark fate prophesied about him, but wound up falling into fate’s trap anyway.