Question nr.3 The one about pity towards Oedipus.

Yes, I do sympathise with Oedipus, and I do fill pity analyzing his character, standards values, and his eventual downfall. Although I don’t believe there is something like a predestined fate, cursed will of Gods or whatever the ancient people believed so badly in, but I believe and absolutely know that there are people who are obliged to exist in this world, with their lives controlled and decided by others, manipulated and kept in ignorance all their lives. This people, by their imperfect nature, live to do a lot of mistakes by the time they discover the truth and the time their ignorance and sometimes naivety transforms into knowledge, then pain, and finally redemption. But everyone has his way of redemption. Some people are meant to eternally recover and start a fresh new life, but some people like Oedipus, can’t do it anymore, for their sins are unforgivable. Their redemption is their end.
Oedipus’ end is his ignorance. I fill pity for him. I can imagine what it is like when a person, totally reassured that he is the right person at the right time, and he is doing his best in everything, follows his principles, values, passions, obligations each day in order to live with dignity. Oedipus’ downfall is very painful. Not only that he gets to be the killer of his father, and commits incest with his mother leaving shameful offspring generation whose mother and grandmother is the same person, but he gets to be totally manipulated by his fate. But the main reason for my sentiment of sympathy and pity towards this character is that everything has been decided for him, even before his birth. People say that there is always a choice. This is not always true. Some people are born without it. Oedipus was one of them. Being cursed by God Apollo to kill his father and become his mother’s husband is not something you can choose. I fate I wouldn’t wish to anyone. I fate that he couldn’t understand because of his ignorance and pride. A fate meant to destroy many lives.
|The second reason why I consider Oedipus worth of my pity is because I believe I can imagine what it is like to be born with everything, a respectful family, a society rank, money, but without a choice to decide your own fate. I think my pity is not provoked by Oedipus fate itself, but by his miserable downfall, by his humiliation and by my relative understanding of it.
Oedipus is really a character I wouldn’t wish anyone to be, but unfortunately, even now, there are a lot of people who follow Oedipus’ fate. I don’t mean the fact that he killed his father and married his mother. No. I mean Oedipus’ way of ignoring and wanting to know the truth at the same time. His way of existing in complete ignorance and being totally sure that he lives a complete life full of dignity. People who eventually refuse others to pity them, and experience a huge, painful, embarrassing downfall, after which they spend the rest of their lives redeeming for their mistakes.