part of what makes tragedies tragic is the story being preventable from the outside but unpreventable from the inside
imagine you’re walking down the street on an early, rainy morning. you just got yourself a cup of hot coffee. you’re thinking about work. there’s a bumpy part of the sidewalk, and you trip....what do you do? you brace yourself with your free hand, of course. you balance yourself with your dominant foot, naturally. you catch yourself while holding your drink high above your head, nothing is spilled, you don’t get hurt, you keep walking. but as you read this, you aren’t even standing are you? you’re likely reading this while lying in bed, sitting on the couch, or sitting at your desk. you don’t consider how slowly your brain works behind early-morning fog. your sense memory of a rain-slick sidewalk beneath misplaced feet is vague at best. you don’t consider how instinct takes over logic when you’re scared. you don’t have to avoid getting hurt while maintaining balance from where you read this.
but i’m sure you wouldn’t fall in real life. you wouldn’t crack your chin on the sidewalk, you wouldn’t spill coffee down your shirt. you’re a reasonable person. you wouldn’t kill the random traveler on your way to thebes. you would’ve just talked to the creature you made, formed formed from corpses. you would’ve just talked it out before making a harsh decision. you’d wait a minute to see if your lover woke up before killing yourself. i’m sure of it.