Oedipus The King is a tragic story for various reasons and it does not serve to teach a lesson. The main character, Oedipus, is fated to have a horrible life full of upsetting surprises. Initially Oedipus is set out to find the murderer of Laius, and he is willing to do whatever it takes to exile the killer. There is no reason that Oedipus should be punished, yet he is soon faced with a startling discovery. When Oedipus finds out that he has slept with his mother, and he killed his own father (Laius), he is heartbroken and destroyed. He knows that he must stay true to his promise and exile himself. Oedipus does not stop at exile; by his realization that he was blind to the atrocities of his life, he physically blinds himself.
There does not seem to be any apparent reason for Oedipus’s unfortunate destiny, and it therefore the story carries no moral. Had Oedipus’s life been full of wrongdoings or had he learned something from his bad fortune, the story would be educational. Instead, the reader can still enjoy the story, but cannot sense a moral. Even when Oedipus is true to his word, no good comes to him. Ever sense birth Oedipus was fated to a life of problems and he had no choice but to fall into the trap fate set in his path.
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2 comments:
Good job! I thought you made some good observations about Oedipus. I do agree that the story does not seem to have a moral, because Oedipus did not make any moral transgressions in his life. I personally found this story to be slightly frustrating since Oedipus really could not escape his fate despite his moral uprightness.
Erin--sorry you haven't had more comments, but I always like to read a blog that takes a contrary position to what is commonly accepted and then defends that position. To see the story as lacking in the ability to impart any kind of moral lesson is slightly unorthodox, but I like it, perhaps for that reason.
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