Through his suffering, Oedipus learns a lot of things about himself. One thing in particular is that he makes irrationally harsh decisions, and acts upon impulse when he dramatically gauged his own eyes out shortly after learning that he had killed his own father (King Laius) and married his own biological mother (Jocasta). His pride and stubborn determination lead to his suffering. Ironically enough, he had basically damned himself along the way while in search for King Laius's murderer. The one thing he proved to himself not to be is a hypocrite. He said whoever committed this crime would be held responsible, and little did he know that he was leading himself to his tragic fate but regardless of the circumstances, he stood for his word. And like a brave King, he punished his own self and begged Creon to be banished from the city. Oedipus's actions proved that he stood firmly for what he believed in. He wanted to see that justice is done, no matter what. Even if that meant punishing himself. He didn't give himself special treatment or exceptions above the law which proves that he was a very honest man who wasn't at all corrupt. And even though this fate seems so tragic, Oedipus got the chance to learn more about himself and about some of these these admirable heroic qualities. I believe that in life, all your experiences will have some sort of positive outcome on who you are, even the negative ones. Every painful experience and every tear a person sheds and every suffering will make them stronger, wiser and help shape their personality. People become who they were meant to be through their life suffering. One of my favorite quotes that supports this idea is "Life doesn't give you the people that you want, it gives you the people that you need. To help you to hurt you.. to make you to break you, to shape you into the person that you were meant to be". (tripod.com 1). Everything happens for a reason, you just have to be patient and let fate take its course.
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