Overconfidence, good intentions, led by emotions, and disastrous consequences. The human experience has no shortage of these. In Oedipus the King, our protagonist is an emotional and proud man. Throughout the story, he gets his way by threatening people for information concerning his past. When the prophet Teiresias eludes to knowing Oedipus’ fate, he keeps essentially forcing him to tell him. Once he does learn of his fate, he doesn’t want to accept it. Oedipus is led by his emotions, mainly anger and fear. In his anger is how he ended up killing his father. In his fear is how he ended up right back in the land his parents were from. Overconfident that he has avoided his fate, he ends up marrying his mother.
This story is littered with classic human experiences. So many time we as humans make decisions based solely on our emotions, and the lead to terrible consequences. The consequences of Oedipus’ actions are that his fate comes true. He had every intention to avoid this at all cost’s, but to no avail he walks right into his doom. The people around his also took action to make sure this fate was avoided though they weren’t successful. We sometimes believe we have more control than we do in life. Human’s have an overconfidence in our abilities, and we soon learn how human we really are. Even though I would consider Oedipus a fool, I can identify with so many of his traits. I know I’ve made some of these mistakes, thankfully not as grave. Overconfidence, good intentions, led by emotions, and disastrous consequences.
2 thoughts on “James Terry Discussion 7”
James, I especially appreciate your comments in the final paragraph here. I don’t feel that Oedipus is a fool, but you are entitled to that view. He certainly is ruled by emotion. I certainly do agree that sometimes people think they have more control over outcomes than they do. You know the quote about “the best laid plans of mice and men” and how often they go astray. And yes, you point to a very disastrous combination when overconfidence and good intentions join with high emotion.
This is a really interesting analysis of timeless human experiences through Oedipus’ actions and emotions, and I like that you listed good intentioned. I also found this as a personality trait of Oedipus and maybe one redeeming non-violent aspect of this myth. Oedipus is well intentioned and loyal. It is almost admirable how determined he is to find the murderer of Laius to save Thebes from the plague in the beginning of the story. Things take a turn for the worst of course, and his fear and anger overpower these initial leadership qualities.