Analysis Of Sophocles 'Oedipus The King'

Oedipus the King by Sophocles The painting was created by Collin Mills, also known as Rezurekted from the famous art site Deviant Art. In the painting the absence of Oedipus’s eye did not becloud him, but yet his spirit was lightened, there were puzzles he was trying to piece together. Although the windows of his soul were missing, but Oedipus was no longer blind. He freed his mind so he could grasp his thoughts clearly once for all. The artist portrayed the character neatly with details. The pieces of the puzzle that Oedipus had figured out were bright and clear and the rest were dark and still all over the places waiting to be solved. In the painting Oedipus looks soulless and emotionless, but he had transcended from his destiny. “Oedipus
is to blame because he should have conducted a thorough investigation after receiving the prophecy” (Nassaar). Oedipus could have saved himself much superfluous troubles and agonies if he would make sure who his real biological parents are. “… he would have discovered his real parents and refrained his fate” (Nassaar). He should have never run away from Corinth. If he stayed in the city and did he could to never kill or marry anyone, he would never be obligated confront this fate. He brought this upon himself and he needed to endure the consequences. The discovery of his fate was completely due to his own choices and action. “He focused more and more on the strictly human level of finding out about his birth and of punishing himself” (Mahony). He struggled and he couldn’t comprehend why was this happened to him and he wanted answer. He was just a mortal; he could be anyone of us. “Oedipus began his life’s circuit with his birth at Thebes; then he was carried southeast in the direction of Mount Cithaeron and Corinth, and from there he later journeyed northwest to Delphi” (Mahony). He travelled from place to place relentlessly. He was not a quitter; in fact, he was a stubborn man who demanded himself for what he wanted.
“Oedipus freely bears the punishment that an inscrutable, but necessary fate has decreed for him” (Goldhill). After Oedipus found out the tragedy truths about his birth and the facts he still killed his father and married his mother, Apollo made Oedipus blind himself, but this time he didn’t run from his fate instead he obeyed and like how Goldhill described how Oedipus freely bears the punishment. Throughout Oedipus’s life he was escaping from his fate, but yet he didn’t know he was doing the exact opposite. Instead of fleeing away from the Oracle of Delphi, Oedipus pushed himself toward the life that was already planned out for him.
We, mankind, often inquired ourselves “what did I do to deserve this”.
Life was a tremendous chain made of variety of decisions and everything we did was tightly congregated to one another. Our actions put us in the circumstances we were involved today. Every flash was the turning point and every second was life changing. There would be no way to know the future, but we could accept our thoughts and feelings. Oedipus spent his whole life, suffering and trying to evade from his fate like a lot of us trying to run away from the fate that nobody’s youth would remain for the eternity. If we already knew how it would end why don’t we fill our lives with the joys and colors? We all had the power to create sparkles like fireworks in our lives. Instead we got caught up in the itty bitty tiny problems and lived the lives unhappily. I believe Oedipus eventually understood the true meaning of life which was that you could not get out of life alive, so if he could do it again he would try his best to live gratefully and live it to the fullest no matter what the outcome was. It didn’t matter if he killed his father or married his mother, he could have done it joyfully. He could be one of the southern redneck who enjoyed the “beauty” of incest, but he ended up sad and lonely with a miserable story to
tell.