Wednesday, July 9

Book/Play Review: Oedipus the King

Author: Sophocles
Title: Oedipus the King/Rex (Oedipus #2)
Genre: Play, classic, adventure, and tragedy
Pages: ebook
First Published: 429 BC
Where I Got It: On my shelf (free download)


"Oedipus Rex chronicles the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes while in the process unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would murder his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. The play is an example of a classic tragedy."





Oooooooooh Oedipus I knew I would have to read your story soon. It was a matter of time. Yes, I was forced to read this in my LIT411 class. *Sighs* I've been avoiding this story for a while. It's odd, because I do love classics and I do love tragedies, but I just never wanted to read this for myself. Perhaps it is because we all know how this story ends. It does not end happy, because all the nasty secrets come out...especially if that involves incest. 0.0

Granted, I actually feel kinda bad for Oedipus, because pop culture makes it sound like he purposely killed his dad to get into his mother's panties. No. That is not the case here. It was all stupid accident and fate. I blame the mother and father for this fate happening, because they abandoned their son on a mountain, so they would avoid the "prophecy" of the baby killing the dad and sleeping with the mom. They created their own fates. Sorry. I don't feel bad for the parents. 

Now...Oedipus is not all completely forgivable. He did murder someone and robbed them (it just happened to be his papa that he didn't know was his papa). Granted, he did redeem himself by saving the town and becoming king. He married the widow and had some kids. Okay, whatever....but then he got all high and mighty and wanted to find that blasted murder of the king. People warned him (especially the seer), but he didn't listen and look what happened. He found out the truth and ruined everyone's lives. 

This was an interesting play and I would like to see it actually performed. However, all the characters irked me, especially Mama Queen and the late Father. *shakes my head* They caused this. The only character I liked was Creon, but there is a foreshadow of his own doom later on in the third part of the saga. Power corrupts all.

In the end, this play was better then I expected, but I still not my favorite of classical plays/stories. I'm glad that Oedipus wasn't a weirdo like pop culture makes him out to be (especially Freud), because he doesn't willingly sleep with his mother. HE DID NOT KNOW! Anyways....I would recommend this to those that like the classics and especially love the tragic stories. This is defiantly up there! I shall stamp this with 2 stars. 

Favorite Character(s):  Creon
Not-so Favorite Character(s): Jocasta, Laius, and Oedipus