The Pain Of Being Out Of Control

King Lear and Oedipus Rex are clearly tragic plays. However, Oedipus Rex’s tale of pain was obviously the more tragic play.  While there is no doubt that both plays were distressing, Oedipus’s shocking story pulled on my heartstrings more than King Lear. Oedipus was a play about how no one has control over their fate, while King Lear was about people making foolish choices. Having no control against all your best efforts takes all of my pity.

                In Oedipus Rex our main character is blindsided by himself. He was a king trying to oust a plague in his land, Thebes. When he learns that the only way to rid of the plague is to kill the murderer of another man, he is shocked to find out that murderer is himself. To then find out that the victim was his father and the wife that supported him was his own mother is definitely the most tragic of tales. He had no intention of being an incestual murderer, it was out of his control. His fate was decided for him.

                Jocasta and Laius, Oedipus’s mother and father, thought they escaped a horrible fate when they sent their son away to be killed. Their plan fell through though and the oracle that predicted their future ended up being right. Their son, whom they assumed to be dead, came back and fulfilled the oracle's prediction. Imagine the horror of finding out the man you are sleeping with is your son.

                Even the short story of Oedipus and Jocasta’s children is deeply tragic. Although the audience only sees the girls for a short time, thinking about their fate after their father is banished from Thebes is saddening. These girls were created out of incest, were seen as pollution and punished for doing nothing wrong. They received the same fate as their father for just being born.

                King Lear was just a play about a crazy family who made poor judgments. While it was tragic that they were all so idiotic and rash in their decisions, the play’s plot did not qualify it for the most tragic play. Each character put themselves in their own problem. Their dilemmas were easily avoidable. If Cordelia had just said she loved her father at the beginning of the play, none of the plot would have even developed; there would be no story. Everything snowballed from one small choice by a stubborn girl. The characters became annoyed with one another and acted on that. The play only developed from horrible decisions on each character’s part and, to me, there is nothing tragic about that.