Talking Tragedy
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Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is without a doubt a tragic story. But, what is it specifically about this tale that makes it so, so tragic? In the play, king Oedipus is unaware that he has murdered his father and married his mother. Most people know how the story goes, so I will spare you the rest of the summary. For me, the most important thing about Oedipus Rex is that, at the beginning of the story, our hero and main character has no idea what he has done or that he had in fact fulfilled the dreaded prophecy that he had been given. This is tragic in and of itself, but what truly gives this ancient play the makings of a tragic tale is the fact that Oedipus was certain that not only was he not Laius's murderer, but whoever had committed the heinous crime should be exiled or else murdered. The possibility of success was there for him, it drove him. He so badly believed that justice would be served for the late king. However, things obviously do not go as anyone had planned. When it begins to come out that Oedipus had murdered Laius, more tragedies than just that are unveiled. The old prophecy that Oedipus had been ignoring and avoiding had, in actuality, become reality. He had unknowingly married and had children with his biological mother. Taking a segue off of this point, is it not also tragic that Oedipus had just found out that the two people who had raised him since he was but days old were not who he had always assumed they were? Tragedy is, by a loose definition, something sad or sorrowful that befalls a person or a character. It is as plain as day that that is indeed what has happened to poor, sorry Oedipus, who was left to cope with the facts that he had murdered a king who had turned out to be his father, married and had four children with his birth mother, caused the horrid plague of awful events to torment the town, been raised by complete strangers, severely punished himself for the crime that he had committed by gouging out his own eyeballs, and lost his title to his brother in law, Creon. The punishments that he inflicts on himself sting the most. Oedipus was a very just, kind, thoughtful ruler. Having done all of these terrible, inexcusable things was worse than death to him. Having to live with the knowledge of what it was that he had done is, perhaps, the most tragic thing of all.
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