Oedipus the King has many timeless human experiences or behaviors. For example, the power of fate. Fate is something that people find very debatable. People being in control of their lives makes them feel superior over others as they are free to make decisions as they wish to. In the case of Oedipus, fate already had a plan for him, even though he found it difficult to accept his reality of no longer being in charge. Another timeless human experience is the concept of family and the troubles that they face. Also, we are taught to be ourselves and in order to do that we must find ourselves. This is shown when Oedipus goes on a journey to make an effort to know the truth about his upbringing. Oedipus is met with his original fate that he tries to get away from, which is a curse that he will one day kill his father and marry his mother.
4 thoughts on “Anais Salcedo Discussion 7”
I agree with you on the fact that fate is something very debatable. Personally, I believe more in acts and consequences, instead of fate. And analyzing the story of Oedipus, I can not help but to feel that what he called “fate” — maybe for lack of self awareness, or just pure ignorance — was nothing more than the consequence of his own actions. So maybe, fate did not have a plan for him, but he instead traced his own path into what was coming next.
About family, I could not agree more. All relationships in general require so much exchange of energy, but certainly family is the most draining of them all. And these patterns are all over human history, following until this day. And we still did not learn how to deal with it!!
Thank you for your feedback! Have a great weekend.
Hello Hayra, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I too thought the same it was more his actions that led to consequences. Oedipus was so filled with wanting power and wanting the truth of whom killed his father, he was blinded by his own truth. Searching for the truth led him to kill his father. I can’t imagine the shame and disgrace he must of felt. The reason they state it was fate is because they believe the Gods could see the future and predicted this act of Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother would happen.
Hello Anais, the power of fate is inevitable. Although it was impossible for Oedipus to avoid his fate, it was how he responded to his fate that made him feel such shame. Did he actually have a choice in preventing his fate, do you think? Maybe if he wasn’t so persistent in learning the truth of his past would he have had the chance to be put in a predicament where he had to kill, not even knowing it was his father he had killed. I think he was blinded by himself all over wanting power.
Hey Anais I really liked what you had to write about the writing but what really stood out to me was how you in the beginning explained the power of fate and stated how people debate about this topic a lot which is very true because no one seems to come to a agreement of what the power of fate is and it just goes back and forth from there on, I also liked a lot in how in the ending you included the fate Oedipus had to deal with and how he faced it on his own.