Buena Vista de “Oedipus The King”
             Do you have a great understanding of “Oedipus the King”? The understanding
             provoked by reading this story is not accidental but intentional. Sophocles
             wants the reader to walk away with condemnation and regret. The reader can
             not help but to walk away from the book with a better understanding of fate.
             The knowledge gained is going to be different for each reader. To
             understand the story, an eye examination must take place. A diagnosis of
             each character’s function and true self must be performed. Unless, the
             reader puts on his or her lenses of interpretation they will suffer from
             First, the main character, Oedipus according to the story is the greatest of
             men and the solver of riddles. Well, Oedipus can only solve the riddle of
             his own origins by revealing a truth too awful to bear. Knowledge is power
             but the insight gained from the knowledge is painful. Oedipus is the
             perfect example of this philosophy. Oedipus’ strive to see everything
             blinded him but even in his blindness he still searched for answers.
             Christopher Nassaar writes, “Oedipus is thus the patron saint of
             philosophers, scientists, poets and artists - of all truth-seekers. Like
             Mulder and Scully in the X Files, Oedipus knows ‘the truth is out there’,
             but unlike them, he doesn't expect to have his eyesight restored for next
             week's episode”(187)! Nassaar also writes, “Oedipus is an inspiration for
             mankind: he must find out the truth at whatever cost, and then accept the
             full responsibility for the knowledge he has discovered. Knowledge plus pain
             is better than Ignorance plus bliss” (187). Is Oedipus fate predetermined?
             No, all the choices made are by Oedipus. He chose to send Creon to Delphi,
             to listen to the priest, to ask for Teiresias, to have the Old Shepherd
             fetched. And his bl...