Regrets, Regrets, Regrets

The decisions we make often lead to regret.  It’s inevitable, and the outcome is most times unforeseeable.  Oedipus made many decisions throughout the play that ultimately lead to deep regret.  The biggest one, of course, was to keep pursuing the truth in order to find out who killed his father.  If he had done as everyone had told him, he never would have felt the pain he did by the end of the play.  He wouldn’t be blind.  His mother/wife wouldn’t have killed herself.  He could have stayed with his children, whom he loved so much.  By the end of the play it is clear to see that he regretted the decision he made.  But I wonder if he would have ultimately regretted dropping the search for the truth.  In the end, it seems the decisions we make define us instead of the outcome.  It really shows what kind of a person Oedipus is when he stays determined to hear the truth that he knows will hurt him deeply.  He could have given up and lived in oblivion, but he chose deliberately to seek out the answers he so desperately needed.  The play has not necessarily answered my question, “WHY do we regret.”  However, this book did explore the motif of regrets in exceptional depth.