Assignment #9

So far as a class we have read many poems and short stories. The latest one has been the play "Oedipus the King," by Sophocles. To many this play might lead to two conclusions: there's free will and the characters are just paying for the consequences of their actions or that you can't escape your fate regardless of what you do. Oedipus is the main character of the play who goes through a lot of tragic things. By trying to escape the prophecy that Oedipus had been told of killing his father and marrying his mother, he ran away from Corinth. On his way to Thebes he encounters three man which he ends up killing. After arriving Thebes he is asked a riddle by the sphynx which he solves and results in the sphynx dying. The people of Thebes rewarded him to be king of Thebes after word had been spread that the King Laioss has been murdered. He weds the queen and has children with her. Oedipus might have thought that by running away nohing bad would have happened but it was the complete opposite. So somehow he couldn't escape his fate no matter what he tried to do. The only thing is that if he had been told such prophecy then he should have been more careful about killing and old man and marrying an older women. Oedipus might have been smart at solving the riddle but he was blind and stupid at solving the riddle of his life.