Oedipus Rex

There are some who are born into privelage, who cannot escape it. There are others who must fight their way to success and power. Oedipus was arguably destined to become a king. It's all too easy to presume that if one has such a life of luxury, they are spared the misery and suffering humanity presents to us all. But examining some of greatest public leaders, figures in literature, kings and princes, it is these individuals that seem to go through the worst of worsts. Hamlet loses his beloved father in a brutal and ugly assassination by his own cowardly uncle. In his own grief and confusion, Hamlet initiates a chain of events that lead to one of the most profound and iconic tragedies of Shakespearean literature. Hamlet did however, rise to the occasion when feeling the first pangs of loss. In a twisted heroic attempt to restore justice and honor to his house, Hamlet takes matters into his own hands, and reacts just as irrationally as he is ironically thorough in his motives. Oedipus' rule over Thebes at first appears relatively smooth and peaceful until a plague washes over the city and chaos ensues. After learning and realizing the identity he had sought to escape, Oedipus accepts his fate and exiles himself from his own city to satiate the wrath of the gods, not before blinding himself by gouging out his eyes in self-reticence. It would be an understatement to assert that finding out you had married your mother and murdered your own father would be hard, rather perhaps the most enormous suffering an individual can bare. Oedipus inadvertently martyrs himself, though he never loses his life, he lets go of all he had once held- the power, the prestige, the honor,- and accepts the shame. He does not try to out run his circumstance but falls- hurdles- into that dark abyss unreluctantly and solidifies his honor. This requires an inspiring amount of character, and reveals the real side, I believe, Oedipus cultured. This act of giving of himself was not something that could be forced, or coerced into, this was Oedipus raw, broken.