The story of Oedipus holds the idea that a person, believed to be good, could have terrible things happen to them. I find the story interesting and relatable, in the sense that some events seem to have a greater power to be controlling our decisions. Weather it be a god or fate, some decisions seem to be out of our hands. When Oedipus realizes what he had done, he feels angry at Apollo and disappointed in himself. He blames Apollo for everything except his own choice to stab his eyes out. I would assume that Oedipus feels guilty and doesn’t want to take full responsibility. But since Apollo is the god of prophecy and it had been foreseen that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother, he was okay with blaming Apollo. He gouged his eyes out because he couldn’t bare to live without consequence, possibly deep down he did believe he held part of the blame.
Oedipus, unknowingly made many mistakes, he didn’t realize that he was causing problems for himself. Oedipus’ behavior, connects with the reader by telling them, that even if you have the best intentions you may be on the path to a darker future. The author understands the connection between character and reader, so he makes Oedipus as relatable as possible. Jocasta nd Oedipus have an interesting relationship in the story. For the time the story was written, I would expect Oedipus to disregard Jocasta, but instead he holds respect for her. Oedipus seems to care about what Jocasta has to say, he confides in her and listens to her suggestions, until it has to do with learning about his past.
At the end of the story, before Oedipus is Exiled. Creon shows Oedipus mercy and lets him say goodbye to his daughters. His daughters only hesitated at the sight of him for a moment, before trusting their father. After Oedipus hugs his daughters, Creon seems to regret his decision of mercy and sends Oedipus’ daughters back into the palace. At that moment it seems as though Creon had been expecting The two girls to be scared of Oedipus and not want to see him, but when they ignored his appearance he got angry and sent them away. It seems as though Creon was still holding a grudge against Oedipus for blaming him for Tiresias’ words.
The story of Oedipus shows us how strong fate is, and even with all the attempts to trick fate, what was said in a prophecy will come true. Even though we feel bad for Oedipus’ fate it had been foreseen and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it.