IMPULSE

After reading Oedipus Rex, many of us may begin to feel a little queasy. I mean, here is a man, who thinks he has it all: power, brains, a beautfiul wife. But wait, as it turns out, this wife of his, whom he loves with all his heart, is actually his biological mother. Though Oeidupus is unaware of this fact, we as the audience, are fully knowledgable of this, and are sickened by the fact that he has had four children with this woman. However, we must ask ourselves, are we being hypocrites by judging Oedipus?
According to Sigmund Freud, each individual has this deep impulse within themselves to find a partner that is simular to their mother. They may not know it initially, while they are searching for this perfect person, but over time it becomes clearly evident. When an individual finds someone who isn't as good to them as their mother, we begin to crticize them for everything they do wrong. We may not always see it, but that impulse to find someone like our mother, the person who has everlasting love towards us, is always there.
With that, i think it is safe to say that we do not have the right to judge Oedipus for his actions. He found a woman who treated him as his mother would, the perfect woman, who in the end turned out to be his real mother. He was only going with his gut, something that any one of us would have done as well.