Do you really want to know?

In Sophocles's play, Oedipus the King, a terrible fate befalls King Oedipus--he kills his father and marries his mother. However, he commits each of these crimes without truly knowing what he is doing. When he kills his father, Oedipus thinks he has merely killed a few random travelers, and when he marries Jocasta, Oedipus has no idea that she is his mother. Over the course of the play, Oedipus discovers these horrors and is mortified. Several characters in the play contribute information that allows Oedipus to piece together the puzzle that is his misfortune, but many of them attempt to shield Oedipus from the terrible truth. Oedipus still begs them to reveal their secrets because he is determined to solve the mystery which has brought a plague upon his people. Although Oedipus may appear to be a proud and selfish character, as the play progresses, we see that he comes to terms with his terrible fate in order to redeem the people of Thebes so that they no longer share in his suffering.

When Creon first tells Oedipus that the man who killed Laos must be exiled in order for the people of Thebes to be saved, Oedipus calls on the seer Tiresias to reveal the true threat to the kingdom. Although Tiresias refuses several times to tell Oedipus the truth, he ultimately points to Oedipus as the ruin of Thebes. Oedipus is shocked and denounces Tiresias as a fool but then spends the rest of the play trying to determine what, if any, truth there is to Tiresias's claims.

At first, Oedipus's motive is merely to prove Tiresias wrong; however, once he speaks to Jocasta and learns more about Laos's death, he begins to entertain the unpleasant idea that Tiresias might be correct. He sends for the only man who survived the journey on which Laos met his death--a shepherd who no longer lives in Thebes. Before the shepherd arrives, a messenger brings word to Oedipus of his "father's" death. However the messenger also informs Oedipus that the King of Corinth, whom Oedipus believes to be his father, is in fact not related to Oedipus at all. Once the shepherd arrives, he begs that Oedipus not ask the truth of him, but Oedipus is so set on solving this mystery, even though it will certainly only lead to his own doom, that he demands the truth. The shepherd confirms that Oedipus is indeed the son of Laos and has married his mother and killed his own father.

In a fit of rage at his own misfortune and at Jocasta’s suicide, Oedipus gouges out his own eyes and succumbs to his miserable fate. It is then that he commits his most selfless act: he chooses to go into exile himself so that the people of Thebes will no longer suffer from the plague. Although Oedipus is introduced to us as a haughty, proud ruler who thinks he can defy fate and the gods, by the end of the play, he is reduced to a humble, unhappy man who leaves the life and people who once but no longer revere him so that they may lead a better life. (WC 530)

Gerasim

In Tolstoy’s novella “The Death of Ivan Illych,” the only person with the ability to comfort Illych and to help him forget his terrible, painful suffering is his servant Gerasim. Anyone else who is even remotely acquainted with Illych seems to only irritate him further or offer him no real comfort at all. One day, in the third month of Illych’s illness, when Gerasim enters Illych’s room to attend to him, Illych asks him to please raise his legs because it makes his pain easier to bear. Gerasim does so and Illych discovers that he feels immensely better while Gerasim holds his legs up, and worse once Gerasim sets them down. Although it seems as if it is the position of Illych’s legs that affects his level of pain or comfort, I believe that it is actually the presence or absence of Gerasim’s companionship that affects Illych’s well being.

While Illych has Gerasim hold his legs up, he also asks Gerasim to sit with him for a while and talk to him. Illych grows to rather like Gerasim, and though “health, strength, and vitality in other people were offensive to him…Gerasim’s strength and vitality did not mortify but soothed him (paragraph 216).” Gerasim almost becomes Illych’s role model. Although Illych knows that he will never again be young and healthy like Gerasim, simply being around him allows him to remember the only somewhat happy period of his life—his youth. Maybe if Illych could have learned from Gerasim and adopted some of his good nature, he would have recovered from his illness, or at least lived his last few days in peace.

What bothers Illych most about his condition is the fact that others around him constantly deceive him in relation to it. They either feign sympathy for him, make excuses not to see him, or deny that he is dying when he knows he really is. Gerasim is the one exception to this norm as he does not lie to Illych, and truly does pity him. This small dose of actual concern that Gerasim begrudges Illych does more good for him and gives him more comfort than any dose of medicine that he takes. He even begins to look to Gerasim as a friend, not a friend like the phonies he used to play bridge with, but an actual, honest companion.

It is worth noting that Gerasim himself is a mere peasant, therefore not in the social class to which Illych worked so hard to ascend. Perhaps if Illych had merely allowed himself and his wife and his family to live out their days as happy peasants, and not always worked so hard to advance his position in life, he might have had a happier life. He might have found more companions in life who made him truly happy, or led a life that he could look back upon and remember fondly, rather than miserably. Unfortunately though, Illych passes away as an unhappy, lonely, middle-class man.

(WC 496)