theory points out that the irony of this play by Sophocles appealed to none other than Freud himself for its way of demonstrating through myth the most basic of all relationships, those between a child and its parents (paragraph 1). The Encyclopedia Britannica further maintains that, "Sigmund Freud chose the term Oedipus complex to designate a son's feeling of love toward his mother and that of jealously toward his father, although these were not emotions that motivated Oedipus' actions or determined his character in any ancient version of the story" (paragraph 4). The majority of reader-response approaches to "Oedipus the King" go one of two directions -- Oedipus either receives just punishment in exchange for his corrupt behavior, or he is regarded as a blameless creature of god undeserving of the sentence that he receives. In my own reader-response theory to "Oedipus the King" I see a righteous man with a good heart who, by seeking justice in the truth, faces devastation and is destroyed. Therefore, it's pity that is felt as a result, as Freud tells us, because at some level, his fate could be our own (Walton, paragraph 7).Tragedy is commonly filled with ironies because there are so many instances in the plot when what appears to be turns out to be entirely different from what actually is. Greek tragedy is traditionally more apt to be public than private and the fate of the entire community is often linked with that of the protagonist. Oedipus, the protagonist of this Greek tragedy, was looked upon as exceptional rather than typical; a prominent man brought from happiness to misery. His characters stature is important because it makes his fall all the more horrific. In todays world, newscasts are filled with daily reports of tragedies, such as a child being struck and killed by a car; an airplane crash; or a devastating fire. According to The Bedford Introduction to Literature, these types of unexpected instances of suffer...
