Well, Oedipus was definitely a tragedy. The only thing not tragic about Oedipus is his name. Seriously? Swollen-foot? That's such a great name for a kid, haha. Anyway, what's not to love about Oedipus? It's got incest and murder, the breakfast of champions. This play asks the question if we decide our own fate or if fate is decided for us. The god Apollo predicted that Oedipus would kill his father and have children with his mother. Now if he had stayed with his adoptive parents instead of believing that Apollo was right, this all could have been avoided. On the same note, if Jocasta and Laius had trusted themselves rather than Apollo, Oedipus could have been raised by his biological parents and it wouldn't have happened. Now, if fate is really determined by the gods, then I guess Oedipus could have done nothing to prevent his fate.
What makes this story even more tragic is how Oedipus tried everything to avoid his fate. He left his family in Corinth, never saw his father or his mother for fear of the prophecy coming true. He thought he had escaped. He thought that he had shown the gods that yes, we (humans) control our own fate. When in actuality, he was following the path set from birth, the path for his destruction and for the destruction of Thebes.
Our reaction to tragedy is rather morbid. We want to see, but at the same time, we don't. In the story, people wanted to see Oedipus with his gouged out eyes, but at the same time they thought it was disgusting and gross so they were afraid to look. They wanted to look upon their king that was married to his mother, father to his siblings, but they found it creepy and couldn't bear to look at him. How does that logic work? Why must we find such fascination with morbid subjects? Why must we be obsessed with a man dubbed swollen foot?
What makes this story even more tragic is how Oedipus tried everything to avoid his fate. He left his family in Corinth, never saw his father or his mother for fear of the prophecy coming true. He thought he had escaped. He thought that he had shown the gods that yes, we (humans) control our own fate. When in actuality, he was following the path set from birth, the path for his destruction and for the destruction of Thebes.
Our reaction to tragedy is rather morbid. We want to see, but at the same time, we don't. In the story, people wanted to see Oedipus with his gouged out eyes, but at the same time they thought it was disgusting and gross so they were afraid to look. They wanted to look upon their king that was married to his mother, father to his siblings, but they found it creepy and couldn't bear to look at him. How does that logic work? Why must we find such fascination with morbid subjects? Why must we be obsessed with a man dubbed swollen foot?