Oedipus the King
by portersarah
Oedipus is a name I have been familiar with because of the term “Oedipus complex,” which describes an incestuous relationship between mother and son. I had always just assumed that the two had been involved knowingly and it was also interesting to learn that Oedipus was the guy who figured out the Sphinx’s riddle, another tale I have known for a while. Oedipus the King is the tragic story of Oedipus, who has become a hero and acquired the Theban throne after solving the riddle of the Sphinx. What was interesting to me was how fate played in this tale. Fate played a big role and, one could say, was the antagonist of the play. It intrigued me how fate always managed to catch up to everyone no matter how hard they try to avoid it, Which was shown through Oedipus running away from his fate of killing his father and coupling with his mother, only to find that he stayed away from his adopted parents while his real parents, who tried to get rid of him in fear of the same fate, suffered at the hand of fate. Another part that stuck out to me was the extreme measures the characters went to after they found out the whole story and looked at the big picture. I honestly had to read the paragraph were Oedipus stabbed out his sight with a broach to check if I was reading about the same guy who had no qualm about exiling his brother-in-law/uncle. Spoiler alert. So while I thought I was going to get a Nero-like tale, I was still surprised at many revelations that we make earlier on and seeing how each character figures it out and reacts. Much like a horror movie in the same sense as you have feelings similar to when a movie character decides to do the obvious.
Monsters in this play I felt couldn’t be labeled. Pretty much every named character in Oedipus the King is a monster. Including fate.
I am excited for the lecture and would like to understand more. Hopefully I did not read anything the wrong way. I didn’t really understand some of the historical context and hopefully it will be addressed.
Sarah Porter Reads Books 
I agreed on the importance of fate. It seems as though by attempting to run from his fate, Oedipus somehow ran directly into it. It is as if the message is being sent that you have an unavoidable fate in this world.