struggles against his
fate in this play,
failing at each turn. It is the gods that have created this fate for Oedipus,
yet he is determined to thwart them. His efforts to avoid his fate are based on a
partial
knowledge that can be seen in contrast to the more perfect knowledge
of the gods.
It is only natural that, given what he knows
about his fate, Oedipus would attempt to
find a way to avoid it. He is told
as a youth that he is fated to murder his father and sleep
with his
mother.
Oedipus struggles against the
oracle
that predicts his hand in his father's death...But the oracle remains
true, and Oedipus is
helpless in the face of its powerful prophecy.
Learning
of this future, Oedipus flees his
parents home, essentially trying to take control of his fate.
On his way to
his new city, Thebes, Oedipus fulfills the first half of the dark prophecy he
is
attempting to escape. He kills his father. Later he marries his mother and
sires
children.
Theof the Oedipus story is created
entirely from Oedipus' attempts
to evade his fate and from his ignorance. Had
he known that his real parents lived in Thebes, he
never would have gone
there. However, this is a tragedy. Oedipus does not know enough to avoid
his
fate. He knows only enough to propel him into actions that lead directly to the
fulfullment
of that ugly fate.
Finally he blinds himself,
symbolizing the blindness with
which he has lived his life up to this point.
He no longer will be pushed and pulled by
illusion, by partial knowledge, and
by ideas of fate.
No comments:
Post a Comment