Oedipus Rex: it's the old kill-your-father and marry-your-mother story. Many people cannot see past the incestuous part of this tragic play by Sophocles. However, Oedipus Rex offers so much more than that. The play makes us question our fate and our ability to control our lives.
Most people already know the gist of Oedipus, the king of Thebes, and his story. Oedipus leaves his parents' kingdom after hearing a prophecy saying that he would kill his father and marry his mother. During his travels, he defeats the Sphinx that has terrorizing the city of Thebes. After vanquishing the monster, he is made the king of Thebes, as the previous king was dead, and is presented the widowed queen to marry. Twenty years of good rule later, a plague created by the gods ravages the kingdom; the only way Oedipus can stop it is to punish the man who killed the previous king. He consults with oracles and his wife and he realizes that not only was he the previous king's killer, but he was also his son and Jocasta, Oedipus's wife, was also his mother. They had abandoned him when they heard that their son would kill his father and marry his mother.
The sad part of this play is not that Jocasta commits suicide later, or that Oedipus blinds himself. It is that both parties, the true parents and Oedipus, tried their hardest to avoid their fate, yet it still didn't work out. Sophocles raises the question on whether we can control our own destiny or is it a fixed deal, something that cannot be changed.
The questions raised by a centuries-old play are still relevant in today's world. Perhaps most modern humans don't believe in things like prophecy and fate, but we still want control in our lives. It is rather disconcerting to realize that your life is not determined by just your actions but also random happenings of other people. Oedipus Rex, like any good piece of literature, does not answer these questions for us, but it raises awareness of them. It also shows us that these questions have been plaguing humanity for a long, long time and it doesn't look like they'll diminish in importance anytime soon.
Most people already know the gist of Oedipus, the king of Thebes, and his story. Oedipus leaves his parents' kingdom after hearing a prophecy saying that he would kill his father and marry his mother. During his travels, he defeats the Sphinx that has terrorizing the city of Thebes. After vanquishing the monster, he is made the king of Thebes, as the previous king was dead, and is presented the widowed queen to marry. Twenty years of good rule later, a plague created by the gods ravages the kingdom; the only way Oedipus can stop it is to punish the man who killed the previous king. He consults with oracles and his wife and he realizes that not only was he the previous king's killer, but he was also his son and Jocasta, Oedipus's wife, was also his mother. They had abandoned him when they heard that their son would kill his father and marry his mother.
The sad part of this play is not that Jocasta commits suicide later, or that Oedipus blinds himself. It is that both parties, the true parents and Oedipus, tried their hardest to avoid their fate, yet it still didn't work out. Sophocles raises the question on whether we can control our own destiny or is it a fixed deal, something that cannot be changed.
The questions raised by a centuries-old play are still relevant in today's world. Perhaps most modern humans don't believe in things like prophecy and fate, but we still want control in our lives. It is rather disconcerting to realize that your life is not determined by just your actions but also random happenings of other people. Oedipus Rex, like any good piece of literature, does not answer these questions for us, but it raises awareness of them. It also shows us that these questions have been plaguing humanity for a long, long time and it doesn't look like they'll diminish in importance anytime soon.