If you have ever been pulled over by a police officer for speeding, your immediate response should be something like, "Oh my god officer, I am sooooo sorry. I hadn't seen a posted speed limit for a while." To which, the unjust officer would most likely respond, "Ignorance is not an excuse, young lady."
Now, my mom once told me if I was ever in this situation that I should bite my tongue and resist the urge to argue. However, that is just not in my character. If indeed I was ever faced with this situation, I would consider it my duty to give the cops of the world a piece of my mind.
Ignorance should very well be an excuse. And I am prepared to argue my point to any officer who will listen. For instance, if you genuinely have no idea what the speed limit is, how can you be punished for exceeding it!? If something does not exist, it cannot be exceeded, right? I know it may seem strange that I am rattling on about cops and tickets when the blog assignment was to discuss some aspect of the story of Oedipus the king. I am getting there.
Oedipus' ignorance is the way in which I can identify with him. The way I see it this poor guy does everything in his power to evade his tragic fate and thus puts himself in the perfect position to fulfill it. The irony is undeniable. Although Oedipus does indeed kill his father and share a bed with his mother, I can't blame him and I definitely don't see why he is condemned to blindness and suffering. He has no idea he's doing it! I know Freud was brought up in class and some students mentioned that perhaps he was aware of his actions subconsciously. I do not believe that this is the class. Despite what Freud may say, I am unconvinced that within every boy is a repressed desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother.
Oedipus had every intention of doing the right thing and just stumbled across some unfortunate plot twists. His situation is directly comparable to that of a speedy driver's behind the wheel. While they have no intention of breaking the law or any knowledge that they are doing so, they are still punished with a ticket. It makes no sense to me.
Although I do not feel that certain consequences are suitable, I am a firm believer in the power of destiny. I recently saw a movie called “If Only” that reinforced this belief. In this movie, Ian Wyndam is working on a proposal for a gene therapy company that explains his method of genetic testing prior to birth that will enable doctors to cure diseases by altering genetic make ups. Upon hearing his proposal, his girlfriend tells him that the sick will still suffer, the old will still get older, and the children of the world will still die needlessly. To me she is telling him that no matter what course we choose, the destination is always achieved. Fate cannot be fought as people like Iocasta would like to believe.
Therefore, let ignorance be excused and let consequences vanish because regardless of the present, karma and fate will serve their purpose in the end.
5 comments:
I agree with what you say about Oedipus suffering from something that he had no idea he was doing. He is completely unaware that he fulfilled the prophecy and so he is ignorant of it. Your connection between Oedipus's ignorance and that of a driver arguing with the pigs over the speed limit is something that I too can relate with. I didn't get the movie comment but perhaps I just have to see it to understand....nevertheless, well done.
-J LO
I like your analogy to speeding. Just like drivers who do not notice speed limit signs or don't glance at their speedometer until they're speeding, Oedipus was unaware of the horrible things that he was doing. Very insightful.
Chelsea,
I started reading your blog and was like, "Why is she talking about speeding tickets? Is speeding and breaking the law the only things she does?" Then i continued reading and found that I completely agree with the parallel/analogy you have invented. It is a very nice and truly original point of view that i definitely had not considered up until this point in time. but, i do like it and I don't want my judgment stated above to take away from what you have written. There is no way Oedipus should be punished because he didn't know the speed limit. Good work!
Uno--your analogy is a good way to raise a fundamental question about the play--can we blame Oedipus for his ignorance? I guess my answer to the question in general is, only if he (or you in your driving analogy) could have and should have done something to remedy the ignorance before it led to unfortunate consequences. If the reason you hadn't noticed any posted speed limit was that you simply weren't paying attention to the signs, then yes, you deserve the ticket. But I still can't tell if Oedipus should have paid more attention to the posted signs.
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