Why would someone torture and exile himself in life if death is what he desires above all else? Even when all eyes are turned against him, Oedipus chooses that living as an unloved transient is a greater then death. Oedipus cannot allow his life to be taken because he understands the infinite power with which one’s death can over shadow one’s life.
While Oedipus is disgusted with his actions in life and would be alleviated by death’s embrace, he begs his brother-in-law, Kreon, “Drive me out of this country as quickly as may be to a place where no human voice can ever greet me” (1383). Oedipus understands that if he accepts death, he will instantly imprint his last actions on his memory and soul. Oedipus has the chance to create a life for himself equal in fame to his years of dredging through sin. Only by continuing to live, even if as a nomadic outcast, can he find the opportunity to find redemption.
What is unfortunate about Oedipus’s predicament is that were he to have died early, he’d be remembered as a great man. Oedipus saved his Kingdom from the Sphinx, he left his home in order to protect his parent’s fate, and he looked over every rock in an attempt to discover the last king’s murderer and protect his city from the plague. Oedipus was a great man, but he was struck down by fate. The varying times when Oedipus could have died reveal the role of death in a man’s history.
Oedipus could have died as a hero protecting his family and country, or as a fiend – hated by the Gods. Oedipus is not an example of who death can make a man memorable, but he is the epitome of how death works in making a man admirable.
Oedipus’s exile will give him the chance to become a man of inspiration, once again. Only by passing on at the right moment will Oedipus’s death be remembered as the death of a good man.
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