Joshua Francis Mrs. Salge ENG 1270 10/15/2015 Oedipus Rex The story of Oedipus Rex is one about a wise, fair king. At the story’s beginning, Oedipus is tasked with vanquishing a plague that has befallen the city. In order to rid the city of the plague, Oedipus must find a man who killed the former king and bring him to justice. Oedipus sets forth to find this man by asking the Oracle. The Oracle, after much hesitation, reveals that Oedipus killed the king, who was his biological father, and by extension, married his mother, Jocasta. After a bit of denial, and a moment of eye-gouging, Oedipus finally steps down and begs for exile, curing the city of the plague (Sophocles). There are a few dissenting points of view on various elements of the …show more content…
First off, Oedipus Rex uses fate in a way that deviates from the common implementation of fate. Many tragedies that involve a character learning of their fate have their character trying to prevent a fate from occurring. Ultimately, either the character does something silly to seal their fate or fate works in a way that thwarts their efforts. Or in the case of some non-tragedy stories, the character succeeds in diverting their fate. The entertainment value of those stories comes from the characters’ struggles in preventing their fate from coming true. However, in Oedipus Rex (at least the part that was read for homework), the fate has already been fulfilled by an unknowing Oedipus. Oedipus was aware of the prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, but the prophecy conveniently left out the “biological” part. Since Oedipus grew up thinking the couple that found him when he was abandoned were his biological parents, he did not know that the man he struck down along the road was his father. While it is true that he changed his behavior to prevent the fate from occurring, it differs from typical examples in that the fulfillment of fate and tragic decline occur at vastly different times. In Romeo and Juliet, the audience is aware of the fact that Romeo and Juliet (which may be a bad example as, to my knowledge, there is no instance of clairvoyance in the story that serves to inform Romeo, Juliet, or the other characters of their fate) are destined to fall, and the tragic decline occurs at about the same time fate rears its ugly head (Shakespeare). However, in Oedipus Rex, the audience is aware of the fact that Oedipus already fulfilled fate. It is only a matter of time before he realizes it. The question becomes “When?” rather than “How?” The entertainment value of the story comes from Oedipus discovering the fact that he had fulfilled