Shammeza Allihussain Discussion 7

Aristotle has written that “poetry is a higher form than history.” He qualifies that history is the story of a particular event that happens at a particular time to a particular person or group, while literature is the story of what is universal in the human experience. After reading Oedipus the king, its clear to see he couldn’t escape his own destiny. During this time, they believed that everyone’s fates were determined from birth and fates were unalterable. Oedipus is the protagonist and his fate, the antagonist. When Oedipus learned of his fate, he left Corinth after he heard what the prophecy directed to Polybus, the man he thought was his biological father. It was said that one day he would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus eager to know the truth was unable to control what was given at birth for him. He believed he was powerful and when his father died, he set out with his own free will to find justice for King Laius, for the people of his land and his own personal reasons. He proclaimed death upon the man that killed King Laius. His fate was defined when he realized the man, he was searching for was himself.