Oedipus FOOLISH Rex

Reading Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) was not an easy task to do. Seriously it was not. I struggled so hard to read the text. Maybe the fact that the text is a translated work from Latin makes it hard to understand it. In fact, the vocabularies used are sometimes out of my dictionary. Thanks to Dr. Edwin for helping us out in making it clear about almost everything about the text.
I was kind of struck by some surprise or I should call it drama-shock as Oedipus Rex was the first text that Dr. Edwin chose to discuss in class. You know that it was a work of Sophocles who was this great Greek playwright. It is definitely going to be difficult for these young beginners like me to read such a heavy plays like his. But never mind, there is always first for everything right?
When I first read the play, I didn’t actually focus on the stage directions. All I care about was what the story was about. But hell to the no. Play is more than just what the story has to tell us. Stage direction is one of the most important things in play because it tells it tells us about lots of things that you may not find in the dialogue and the story.
It is still clear to me what happened on the first of the class when the discussion of this play took place. Dr Edwin asked some of my classmates to imitate how Oedipus was supposed to walk as the king. Was it with some proud, arrogance and dignity or what? I know it wouldn’t be that easy. I knew Dr. Edwin was slick and tricky as how he has always been. So, my friends came out with different styles of walking and some of them were just hilarious. There was only one of them who successfully realized it in which it was with a little limp. Never had I thought about it although I actually knew that Oedipus actually had clubfoot. The funny part was that, Dr. Edwin asked me to imitate it as well just because I accidentally said yes to that. Funny, no?
The best thing I have learned from this play would be the idea of Wise and Foolish. Wise is when you use your knowledge for the good of others and your self. While foolish is when one acts and gives problems to himself. It is clear how this idea of wise and foolish worked in the play and shall I not elaborate on that. But what I want to focus on here is how some one who is looked up to as a respectable wise person with pride and arrogance can also be foolish in the end. I have seen some of people who are foolish because of their actions and the way they think. I myself was also foolish at one point of my life. I am not saying that I am wise or anything like that ok. But you can see how ironic life is. Dramatic irony as how it is known in play. Life is full of irony, isn’t it?
Somehow or rather, Oedipus Rex is a so much better text than King Lear by William Shakespeare. I have just started reading it but I immediately get lost as one would get lost in a thick preserved unknown jungle in Africa. It is a more complicated text with MORE difficult words and vocabularies that would confuse you. The words are sometimes just the normal typical words we use daily, but the underlying meanings only God knows what they are. I am so looking forward to Dr. Edwin’s explanation on King Lear because seriously, I AM LOST!