Blog #9 assignment: Free choice

The play “Oedipus the King” is a drama that is full with of irony. Oedipus had tried to get rid of his fate that he would kill his real father and get marry with his real mother, Iocaste. However, He could not escape from his terrible fate. This play shows how people in this story try to escape their fate and how it is no use because in the end, what the oracles predict comes true.

King Oedipus, aware that a terrible curse has befallen Thebes, sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to seek the advice of Apollo. Creon informs Oedipus that the curse will be lifted if the murderer of Laius, the former king who murdered many years ago, is found and prosecuted. Oedipus dedicates himself to the discovery and prosecution of Laius’s murderer. And he found Teiresias who is a blind prophet and informs Oedipus that Oedipus himself killed Laius. Oedipus goes on to question a messenger and a shepherd, Oedipus and Iocasta finally knew how he was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a new family. In a moment of insight, Iocasta realizes that she is Oedipus’s mother and that Laius was his father. Horrified at what has happened, she kills herself. Oedipus, too, realizes that he was Laius’s murder and that he’s been married to and having children with his mother. In horror and despair, he gouges his eyes out and is exiled from Thebes.

What Oedipus did for himself is right because he was such a confident person who attempt to fight with his fate all though it would be a dreadful and unbearable ending. In the story there are many occasions in which people try to escape their fate. Oedipus tried to away from his fate but he actually went into his unavoidable fate. I believe that this play is clear that the purpose of this Greek tragedy was to show how fate can not be escaped and that your destiny is planned by the gods and nothing you do can change this. This also shows that although you may know your destiny, you can not do anything to change it and if you do, you will be punished by the gods.