The Interminable Relevance of Oedipus The King

This Greek play, Oedipus The King, has interested many generations of scholars and students over the last two-thousand years, becoming “one of the most famous plays in all of Western literature” [Mr. Coon]. This tragedy about the unfortunate situation encountered by Oedipus presents several themes that are just as applicable today as they were in Sophocles’s time. The philosophical and psychological questions that it raises strike a chord among most audiences. Furthermore, seeing Oedipus as a potentially “good” character (albeit with several large flaws) makes the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his life and his family tie appeal to the feelings of the audience, who sympathize with him and his mother.
Philosophy is “The study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language” [Wikipedia]. One of the philosophical aspects of this tragedy that intrigues people is how the prophesy, which predicted that Laius would be killed by his son, changed (or didn’t change) the events of the story one way or another. Was Oedipus’s fate pre-ordained? Laius ordered him killed, and unlikely as it was, he survived. Also, even though he grew up miles away in Corinith, he was somehow at the same place at the same time as his father, the king, and had to kill him to defend himself. If it were not unlikely enough for Oedipus to even meet his biological father again (let alone kill him), next he solved the riddle of the sphinx that had threatened to starve Thebes and took his mother as a wife. So was the prophesy a true vision of the future, telling of events that would certainly unfold, regardless of an individual’s choices or actions? Or, was this prediction a self-fulfilling prophesy? One can reasonably assume that had Laius not ordered his son to be killed, had he raised the boy himself, then the incident on the highway when Oedipus killed Laius would never have happened. But would the same result have been reached in another way? Does man truly possess true will, or are the fates of all men decided from the beginning?
Psychology is “The sum or characteristics of the mental states and processes of a person or class of person” [Dictionary.com]. The state of emotions felt by Oedipus and Iocasta at the conclusion of Oedipus The King, when they find out the truth about their relationship, presents a unique situation in which the audience cannot help but feel sorry for the characters and their plight. The reaction of both characters is somewhat shocking, but not altogether surprising. Overcome with grief, Iocasta committing suicide makes sense. She simply could not stand to live anymore. But Oedipus’s actions are more attention-grabbing. He so dreaded the time when he would once again face his mother and father in the underworld that the stabbed out his own eyes, so that he would not ever have to see them again.
The themes that Sophocles chose for this story endear it to nearly all peoples. Oedipus The King has remained a timeless work of literature because of the basic questions of human nature that it asks, which are just as relevant in modern society as they were in Ancient Greece.