fate and decisions

Durrell Grove
September 5, 2011
ENG 121
Fate and Decisions

When doing different types of writing such as plays, scripts, and essays there main parts that are needed effectively tell the story or get the underling message across to the audience. The key parts that are needed are the plot, settings, characters, and message of the body of work. As both a writer and reader of literature the best story is a story that the audience can relate to. In most cases stories that make people think about past situations in their life that bring up some type of feeling or emotion. That is where we pick of the conversation on the body of writing I had to understand in class, which was a Greek play called “The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles”, in this body of work there were so many emotions that could date back to my life in mental or physical aspect. The emotions such as pain, pleasure, and deceit. In Oedipus this emotions were through out the different scenes.
Therefore, the writer Paul Roche had to set up different setting in which this emotions and more can be found to be true for the audience. The author helps by placing Oedipus in different settings in which the audience could feel a different way about the way he acts or treat other characters within the play. In the beginning of the play Oedipus does battle his father, in some cases people who read the information given would have the mind set of why are father and son fight to the death. In most father and son lives the son try to challenge the father for power, control, and will of becoming the leading man of the house better known as the head of the family. We all know when you are the head you have the last say so on things. This emotions is power such can stream from pleasure or pain, in the play of “Oedipus” had a little of both. When Oedipus killed his father he felt good and was now the king of his land. When he was king the land and everything in it was in his control. Oedipus also did something most would say is inhumane for a son to marry his mother and have four children by her. When reading this information Oedipus took this as pleasure but also this would be pain he would never want to deal with in his time of living.
Pain of this play come in a form of his mother as known as his wife. It was a tell when Oedipus was a child that he would kill thy father and marry thy mother. The author set the tone of the information on different events when the blind man could see the true on how Oedipus killed his father to become king, and how he thought his actions would have the people of his land put all their will in him and agree with everything he stand for. This setting of the play makes me feel that everything told is about to turn upside down, in relating this to everyday life one minute someone can feel as if they are top of the world but one piece of information that comes forward can make that world come dropping down on their head. The setting goes from pleasure to the biggest pain someone could feel. When these events happen that made me feel as if that was my life within so many words.
In so many words the author tell the audience what was points that should stand out. When the words to become unclear to the reader that is a sign for something to watch out for. Once all the secrets of Oedipus and his family came out to the people of his land the tone started to turn toward deceit. In any body of work deceit can leave the reader with some many emotions from why this happen to what will happen next to the people in the situation being talked about. If the reader wants to leave people hanging the author will have a question that will need to be answered by the characters. All the different emotions in the play can be look in different aspects of someone who know what future was laid out for him or on the other hand he could never understand why his life can have so many turns on how he live his life from being a child to becoming the king of his land. When I reader this play I did not know how to take the character of Oedipus if it would be a tragedy or just a play with a strong plot, emotions, and different unknown settings.
I thought about this play as a reader or writing, but on the other hand I thought of my own personal feelings on the situation how he treated people and his own decisions he made. On a reader’s view Oedipus was left with so many questions that should have been answered by his decisions from killing his father to killing himself. On a level of a reader the tragedy was fate from when he was a child it seem like his life was played out and the way his mother/ wife wanted it to play out it did. Oedipus let fate play in decisions he made on his people and family. In my personal feelings I wouldn’t want to live that type of life I would have tried to talk to my father about how things was playing out from his relationship with me and my mother. But the play just basically went off actions and not emotions. The play could not happen in life now of days due to the fact of man feelings toward marriage and killing someone. Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother had effects for years to come and feel someone known about it they wanted to see how easy someone goes off words and what people tell them at a young age. I thought deep about how someone could just listen to the same fate all their life, could you change it, deal with it, or just forgot about that fate and rewrite history before it took place.
Fate in a real life scene had a tragedy due to people dying and how they died. If I was Oedipus I would have looked into the fact of my father and I relationship. A man without a father in their life could bring so much pain that all the pleasure he is brought upon only last for a few moments. This play hit home with my life on that aspect on a father-son relationship, due to how Oedipus’ mother wanted fate to play out, controlled how he looked at his father. The author put the thought of that fate in Oedipus at a young age, so once he became of age he had his mind made up on what was needed to be done which was to kill his father and become king. When I read this my heart dropped because of my life me and my father never got alone due to how I thought the relationship he had with my mother. When I became of age I wanted to hurt my father due to what I thought my fate should be by all the information I got at a young age. The situations he was put in should have never took place I always think how young was he before he knew about the wrong that come into his life if he continue the tragedy of the ply or better known as the fate that was put upon him. Since my pops died I feel like I had that fate in so many ways.
In conclusion, the writing of “The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles” the tragedy had different levels that could be taken from the readings such as pain, pleasure, and deceit. When I read deep into the passage I got a lot of emotions I deal with my life situation with my family and the passing of my father . The author did a great job on making this greek play relate-able to things people deal with in everyday life. People who read and analyzed the play could see the different aspects of tone given and the emotions in each scene of characters.


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