The Power of Fate

Again, I would like to question the power of fate in Oedipus Rex. I think fate plays a major role in the plot of the drama. What does Sophocles try to convey to the readers? People should not fight against fate? Iocaste is an ignorant and tragic character. She does not even know the person who sleeps beside her is her son as well as the murderer of her husband. Undoubtedly, this is the power of fate. Human can never know the whole truth before he or she is destined to know. Sophocles has come out with the helplessness of human, or even their foolishness of trying to handle the things beyond their ability. For example, Oedipus who tries to know the truth despite the disagreement of Teiresias and Creon has finally defeated by his own ignorance. Maybe, human should be moderate in everything they do; Maybe, human should not try too hard to know everything in this universe. Maybe, curiosity does not only kills cats, it kills human as well.

Fate Or Choice?

Last week, we had come to the theme of the Oedipus Rex. Our tutor Ms. Baiti required us to identify the protagonist and antagonist, as well as the symbol that they represent in the drama. I was wondering, why most of my coursemates chose the fate as antagonist instead of a real character. Personally, I do not agree with most of them that fate is the antagonist that causes conflict to Oedipus. At least, Oedipus is not fated to find out the truth, neither that he is fated to blind his eyes. It is undeniably that the person whom Oedipus killed happened to be his father, but the choice of finding out the truth is on him. He CAN choose to listen to the prophet, as all we know prophet is the person who foresee the future. Thus, he should not force the prophet to reveal the truth since he knew the prophet has his reason behind his action. What should I say? Oedipus is over-confident in which he thinks he is capable to handle every thing. The real antagonist, I think, would be his over-confidence. It is the major reason that leads to his fall.

The teaching of drama

After the first class with Miss Baiti, a question mark appears in my mind. Am i capable to "TEACH" drama to my students? I don't think I really understand it either, especially the Greek drama. The dialogues seem to be groups of familiar alphabet yet the meanings are so hard to predict. Although i have expected it to be hard (which means it's full of 'thou', 'thee'...etc), yet it really drives me to my limit reading Oedipus Rex. We were given some time to understand the prologue in the first class, and there are still lots of scenes to go. A big challenge to overcome, i think.

The Beginning of Oedipus Rex

It takes three times of readings for me to really understand the drama, Oedipus Rex. From the prologue, I would say that Oedipus is a responsible king who tries to save his people from the plague. His intention is good. However, his overconfidence seems to drive him to unveil the darkest secret that he would never want to face. Personally, I felt that Oedipus should not be led to such tragic ending. Just look at the way he is so brave to kill Sphinx for Thebes and his determination to bring his people out of the plague. Although he is a little bit overconfident and lacks of discretion, nobody would ever predict the ending to be in such a way.