Oedipus' Morality

Would you die in order to save thousands of people? Would you go under a curse that is far from unbearable instead of taking your life? These are questions that Oedipus had to face.

About a month and two weeks ago, we talked about morality. "Moral judgment is pretty consistent from person to person... [but] moral behavior, however, is scattered all over the chart," says Marc Hauser, a professor of psychology at Harvard University. All humans have different opinions and views, which creates different decisions of any question. Oedipus was an extraordinary person who wanted to do whatever he can in order for his kingdom to become better, but still had some bad moral behavior. As he said, he would even die in order for his kingdom to get out of the plague. Of course, most people would say that they would do die for others, but it is harder when it actually occurs to you and you have to make the decision. Even though Oedipus just said it, he goes under even a greater pain than that. Like the chorus said, "Better to die than be alive and blind (242)." Oedipus did not die, but was alive and blind, causing him to be worse of than dead, and Oedipus knows this. Even though all his pain would go away, is moral judgment of death is different than the common person. He is strong enough to go through the pain for he strongly believes in death over dishonor, even with the little honor he has. Although he had good moral for his kingdom, he was did not have good moral behavior when he killed Laius. I believe that he went too far to kill Laius and did not have a sensible reason in order to do so.

So I have a question to you, do you think that Oedipus is morally strong or weak, or even both?