My understanding to Oedipus the King by Sophocles

    Oedipus accidently killed his father and again accidentally married his mother.  His actions committed both crime and sin at the worst level.  However, we cannot claim he is guilty or he is evil.  On the contrary, he is such an innocent and honest man with a pure kind heart.

Once he learned his future from the God Apollo, Oedipus tries so hard to avoid his life as a tragedy, but all he had done are the steps leading to his fate.  Fate has been a forever philosophy topic flows down from generations to generations.  Is our life destined? If so, why do we even do it?  Then no one has free will at all.  If not, then why Oedipus cannot avoid his fate? Are people only a toy to Gods?

The last words in the play by Chorus, “no one can call himself    Gods’ friend until he passed his entire life peacefully” (cannot remember the exact words).  True, man cannot predict life, no one knows if life is towards a good end or bad end.  According to Oedipus’ life as a whole before he find the truth, he is seen as a hero with successful achievements and Gods’ blesses.  However, until the truth appeared, his life suddenly shifts to the opposite, and became the man with most tragedy of life.

A tragedy is not just a combination of death and tears in the end.  The real tragedy is hopeless.  The real sad thing is, you just look at it but cannot do anything to stop it.  Then, this is what hopeless does, it cause more suffer and more pain beyond death.

My reaction to the performance is not too much.  First of all, the performance is too plain with no stage setting and dressing.  And that made me cannot really get into what I was expecting.  Secondly, listening is tough.  I had a language difficulty to understand the Greek background play, with all the gods and the way of conversation.  Although I studied the play prior, I still feel lost in the here and there.  The actors did wonderful job on the stage.  They are loud and clear, moving around tried a lot to put some color on the paper.  Even with a script in hands still I can see they put a lot efforts into it to make the play as smooth as possible.