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Oedipus The King

At a young age, I had always been interested in the concept of Greek literature. Oddly enough, I never exactly got the chance to read anything like it until now. I won’t lie, the inclusion of so many characters was just a tad overwhelming at first, but I quickly grew used to it as I continued reading. As someone who has taken a few courses in psychology over their first year of college, I’ve become a bit familiar with the ‘Oedipus complex’- and now with this reading I’ve finally been able to learn about the origin of this concept. Overall, Oedipus himself is quite the interesting character. He has an overwhelming drive to him when it comes to figuring out how to save his city from a plague. While searching far and wide for the killer of his father, the previous King Laius, not only does he come to learn that he was the killer, he also realizes that his wife is also his mother. What I found the most interesting about this text- aside from the character of Oedipus- was how Oedipus and mother/wife Jocasta reacted to the truths being revealed about Oedipus. Jocasta killed herself, while Oedipus gouges out his eyes. I found this to be very interesting because in many pieces of literature, it is always the female who ends up ending their lives, while the man has to live with the burden of knowing that the woman he loved has died. As if it weren’t enough that Oedipus knew his wife died, it was also his mother, a woman who he would probably want to seek comfort from after learning of such a tragedy. It’s always interesting to see the ‘tough’ character fall apart, and even better to actually feel guilt- and we get to see this with Oedipus, not being able to forgive himself for killing his father and marrying his mother.