Looking face-to-face

Let it burst! Whatever will, whatever must!

I must know my birth, no matter how common

it may be-- I must see my origins face-to-face.

...

but I, I count myself the son of Chance. (1183-1887)

 

Here, Oedipus is overflowing with a desire to know the truth of his birth. He wants the truth to "burst" meaning that he wants to uncover and breakthrough this mystery of  his lineage. The next line just entails that he does not care "how common" meaning that he does not care if he discovers that his real parents were peasants. In line 1185, Sophocles personifies Oedipus' "origins" by using the phrase "face-to-face". Oedipus does not care how up close and personal the truth gets, he wants to be told directly.  The tone of these beginning lines are very frantic as seen by the use of exclamation points on line 1183. This further shows Oedipus' frustration as well as excitement at discovery this long kept secret. There is some dramatic irony in the phrase "I count myself the son of Chance". The audience knows that Oedipus was thrown over a mountain only surviving because a Shepard found him while Oedipus has no idea. Additionally, in this line the word "Chance" is capitalized giving the word an almost godlike characteristic. This further shows how chance is almost like a god in Oedipus' life. Everything, including sleeping with hims mom and killing his dad could be seen as happenings of "Chance". 




 
"Mirror"
(feat. Bruno Mars)

With everything happening today
You don't know whether you're coming or going
But you think that you're on your way
Life lined up on the mirror don't blow it, woo.
Look at me when I'm talking to you
You looking at me but I'm looking through you
I see the blood in your eyes
I see the love in disguise
I see the pain hidden in your pride
I see you're not satisfied
And I don't see nobody else
I see myself I'm looking at the...

Mirror on the wall , here we are again
Through my rise and fall
You've been my only friend
You told me that they can understand the man I am
So why are we here talkin' to each other again?

*Why this song?*
To me at this point in the play Oedipus is truly looking for a clear image of himself. Literally, the clearest image one can get of themselves is through a mirror. The first stanza of this song is talking about how you don't really know what the future holds. Thia relates to Oedipus not really knowing his true identity.  For the rest of this stanza I can  picture Oedipus "face-to-face" with his true identify, almost not recognizing himself.  Oedipus doesn't understand who he is ,however, he is continuing to pry and uncover the true mirror image of himself.

Personally, I feel like many people out there are still trying to discover and love who they are. I'm not surprised at all that Oedipus is immensely curious with discovering the truth to his existence.  We are constantly changing as seen in the last two lines of the song, "You told me that they can understand the man I am / So why are we here talkin' to each other again". Overall, I am not shocked that Oedipus wants to know who he is. Don't we all spend some time looking in the mirror thinking along the lines of "who am I?"