Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy that tells the story of Oedipus unknowingly following a prophecy, this prophecy says that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife. Oedipus denies this prophecy, but eventually reveals the truth which ends the story in tragedy. Personally this text affected me in the sense that I now want to see as much evidence as possible before I make a final conclusion. This is because even though Oedipus was raised in another city he eventually completes the prophecy, he was ignorant about the origin of his birth which explains why rumors eventually led him to flee from his adopted parents and ultimately tricked him into killing his father and marrying his mother. Also, it has affected me in the sense that I now trust less of what I was told growing up, this is because we learn everything from our parents, teachers, and peers therefore the same thing that happened to Oedipus could’ve happened to me because I have no proof other than my parents word and piece of paper to tell me who my biological parents are. A part of the text that really caught my attention was the part when Oedipus recalls killing travelers in self-defense after fleeing from his adopted parents village, he later realizes that Laius was one of the travelers after having the only survivor recount the events that transpired. This caught my attention because Oedipus was smart enough to solve a riddle himself that the whole town couldn’t solve, but wasn’t smart enough to form the connection of him being his fathers murderer and his wife being his mother until it was too late. While Oedipus did have a legitimate reason to not believe the prophecy due to his childhood, it catches my attention that he was quick to deny the act of murder before looking at any evidence and that he did not recall the man he murdered around the same time and location to be of notable status when social ranks were very common at the time. A part of the story that provokes an emotional response is when the truth is revealed, that Oedipus is in fact married to his mother and brother to his own children. This provokes both disgust and uneasiness for obvious reasons, socially we all agree to certain unofficial rules or ethics, one of which is to never look at your mother in a sexual way because incest is extremely wrong. What made these feelings even more strong is the fact that Oedipus actually killed his father and had multiple children with his mother meaning this relationship lasted for a decent amount of time. Just like many of the other texts we have read, this text does not remind me of another text because the plot is extremely original. Incest is a topic that is frowned upon to even mention in many societies, this explains why this is the only time I can recall hearing about incest in a fictional story, especially since the truth of incest and murder being revealed is one of the climaxes of the story. This story in a way supports my belief that incest is bad because if it was revealed to me that I had killed my true father and had children with my mother I would act in the exact manner of Oedipus, to inflict self harm and require a getaway. This text gave me insight in another class actually, in psychology I learned about Oedipus complex, a stage children go through where in boys they have sexual feelings toward their mother and resentment to their father, there was a question about it in a quiz and I was the only student to answer correctly because the insight I learned rom this book helped me hypothesis what Oedipus complex could possibly be.