Oedipus...a prey of fate

The whole class did a discussion about Oedipus Rex with Miss Siti Norbaiti last Friday. The discussion gave me a better insight into the tale of Oedipus. There are things between the lines that I failed to make a sense out of them at first, but became quite an impact after the session..

Reading Oedipus, one might be amazed at how a person could be entangled in such a mess without knowing but then again, it can happen to any individual. Even though our lives are not documented or turned into an epic play, we do experience events that are as much surprising as it was for Oedipus when he found out that he was the one causing Thebes to be at the feet of misery. The point is that, for Oedipus, he might be worshipped by his men, magnificently solved the riddle of Sphinx, and became a well-respected king, but deep down he was still a human. He wanted to break free of the premonition he was believed to be destined with, but ironically ended up doing the exact details of it.

That's where we can see how vulnerable people are as humans. We sometimes think we can outrun fate to save everything that is meaningful in our lives but in a cruel twist of events, we are heading to the very obvious destination. For me, Oedipus might be a king, but he was also a sad soul trying to make the best out of everything for everyone. Unfortunately for him, the fact that he is not God deterred that route he was trying to take and drifted him away from it, thus causing pain and misery to almost everyone he knew instead.

He might sound very melancholic but I love Oedipus for his desire to help people and for his human traits because like I said, they made him human.
Just like you and me.