Theme Of Fate And Free Will In Oedipus The King

Oedipus is a man of unflagging determination and perseverance, but one who must learn through the working out of a terrible prophecy that there are forces beyond any man’s conceptualization or control. Oedipus’ actions were determined before his birth, yet Oedipus’ actions are entirely determined by the Gods who control him completely. In the beginning of this tragedy, Oedipus took many actions leading to his own downfall. He tried to escape Corinth when he learned of the prophecies that were supposed to take place in his life. Instead, he

Clearly, the friend declared, Oedipus was aware that he alone was responsible for his actions.  Moreover, the friend also stressed the fact that if Oedipus was not responsible for his actions, then he could not be viewed as a tragic figure since he would be a mere puppet of fate or the gods.  I was not prepared to argue one so scholarly as my friend, so I stayed silent.  Roy, my roomate, and the friend then discussed whether Oedipus's explosive temper was a tragic flaw. The friend believed that his volatile temper was one factor that contributed to his downfall.  I cannot remember now the salient points of Roy's argument, but I do recall that I partook in the debate by urging my friend to look at Oedipus as a hero who was trying to assert his rights, as a hero who was trying to defend his honor, when he slew those who violated his right of way on that fateful day where the three highways came together:

Fate is defined as the development of events beyond a person’s control. In “Oedipus the King,” Sophocles, tells us about a tragic hero (Oedipus) in which his life is predetermined by fate, because he is deprived of free will. The first act of fate on Oedipus was him being saved by a shepherd when his parents (Queen Jocasta and King Laius) left him in the mountains to die, he then met and killed his father without knowing who he was, and last, he married Queen Jocasta, later realizing that she was his mother. Every action that Oedipus took to prevent his fate, would soon be the ultimate downfall, not only for himself, but for his family and the people of Thebes.

In the play Oedipus The King by Sophocles, Apollo had declared the murderer of the former king of Thebes, Laius, as the one responsible for the hardships that Thebes had faced. Oedipus, determined to find the culprit, led an investigation into the murder. Throughout the journey of the mystery, Oedipus’s fate, the prophecy that foretold that Oedipus would kill his father and wed and bear children with his mother, was gradually fulfilled. Essentially, bits of Oedipus’s destiny were proven to be true as new information continuously came to light throughout his detective work of the initial crime, despite his constant efforts to avoid the truth of what occurred. This particular investigative expedition not only concluded with the mystery of Laius’s true killer being brought to light, but it also illuminated the definitive power and restrictiveness of fate and the role it played within the story itself.

Nevertheless, the main characters in Oedipus Rex, the kings and queen, who thought themselves worthy enough to test fate, seemed to be the ones to lose to fate in the end. It’s important to realize, that the first ones to test fate were King Laios and Queen Jocasta. In Scene II, Jocasta tells Oedipus that she

The play “Oedipus the King” favors the idea of fate because both Oedipus and his parents, Jocasta and Laius, make futile attempts to avoid the fate given to them by the god Apollo. However, no matter the extent to which these characters go to change their fate, they always return back to their original path of fate and it remains true.

Fate is defined as a predetermined event that cannot be changed by mortals. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus is marked by his fate, and he does not realize it until it is too late. Oedipus learns of his fate when he calls for Teiresias, the blind man who can read and interpret the prophecies. After being provoked by Oedipus, Teiresias angrily reveals that Oedipus is destined to kill his own father and marrying his own mother, while eventually gouging out his eyes. However, Oedipus does not fear his fate; he believes that he is invincible to these prophecies. How does one go about escaping fate? Does one have any control over these predetermined events? Oedipus is a man in pursuit of answers, and the idea of his prophecy coming to fruition does not sit well with him. He does not even fully understand fate and how it is going to affect him until he experiences it. Nevertheless, Oedipus understands that free will does exist and is seen throughout the text implementing his own actions into his everyday life. The idea of fate is flawed, and is used by Oedipus and people of today’s society as a scapegoat for one to hide behind their own poor decisions.

The idea of fate has always had a special request in religion and in the philosophical thinking. A person’s life is fully controlled by fate or destiny. It is fate which can help a man in gaining fortune. The proof that the fate controls everyone’s life is that some people fail to gain phenomenal results even though they keep on trying. Fate is the master of each and everything. At some point of time every individual has to bow down to fate and has to understand that his life is controlled by fate. In the play Oedipus Rex, by Socrates , Oedipus is quick in solving the riddle of Sphinx, but slow in solving the fate of his own identity. As the play opens, a strange plague has threaten the city of Thebes. Many people are dying, and they ask Oedipus

Throughout Oedipus the King, the concept of fate and free will plays an essential part in Oedipus’ destruction. This story describes the suffering of Oedipus as a result of a misfortune of which he has no control over. Oedipus is a play that demonstrates how a person’s life can either be destined to take a certain path or be based on the decisions a person makes throughout their life. There are no oracles or prophecies that can determine how an individual’s life turns out to be, but according to Sophocles the gods cursed Oedipus even before he was born. This is a tragic event of a conflict between the powerful gods, his blindness, a man’s inability to change his destiny and his intelligence.

The events in Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, show an underlying relationship of man’s free will existing within the cosmic order or fate which the Greeks believed guided the universe in a harmonious purpose. Man was free to choose and was ultimately held responsible for his own actions. Both the concept of fate and free will played an integral part in Oedipus’ destruction. Although he was a victim of fate, he was not controlled by it. Oedipus was destined from birth to someday marry his mother and to murder his father. This prophecy, as warned by the oracle of Apollo at Delphi was unconditional and inevitably would come to pass, no matter what he may have done to avoid it. His past actions were determined by fate, but what he did in Thebes; he did so of his own will.

Fate and free will played major parts in creating the characters and stories in many of the Greek mythologies and tragedies. The Greeks believes that the Gods and the Oracle's could predict a person's fate before or after birth, and that no one, even the Gods could intervene in that person's fate. They also believed that a person's or God could not create their own fate. This belief stems from the three fates: sisters, The Moirai or Fates were three sister deities, incarnations of destiny and life. Because of these three old women, fate could not be avoided or altered. As such with these stories, in the Iliad fate leads Achilles down his path of glory and his early demise, and cause Oedipus to sleep with his own mother and kill his father. Free will is the power of acting without constraint and fate; acting by one's own decisions. Even though Achilleus and Oedipus have fate, they both also have free will. For instance, Achilles has a double fate: if he goes home, he will live long without glory or if he stays at Troy, he will have lots of glory, but a short life. As such, in Sophocles Oedipus the King, when Oedipus was born he was fated to kill his father and lay with his mother, thought his ability of free will caused his fate to come true.

Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, is a play about how fate and the actions of oneself relate to each other and affect those around oneself. In the play, Oedipus is the adopted son of Polybus, the king of Corinth, and Merope, his wife. After a citizen comments on his parentage at dinner, Oedipus decides to travel to the oracle of Delphi and delve into the meaning of his life. While traveling, he encounters a man in the three-way crossroad who he murders. Unbeknownst to him, this man was his biological father, King Laius of Thebes. Oedipus then travels to Thebes and valiantly defeats the Sphinx who had been terrorizing the village. He is awarded the crown and marries the beautiful widow: Jocasta. All is well until plagues, and dangerous disasters begin to harass the town. Desperate to discover what is wrong and how to fix it, Oedipus sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle. He returns bearing news that Apollo will stop the terror when the townsfolk caught Laius' killer and punished accordingly. Oedipus vows to avenge the previous king, even ironically referring to him as a father figure, unknowing that Laius and Jocasta did, in fact, conceive him. He calls upon the prophet, Tiresias, to foretell the identity of the killer, and with reluctance, the perpetrator is revealed to be Oedipus himself. At this point, Jocasta recalls a prophecy that had influenced the attempted infanticide of her son, in which the prophet said that the baby would grow up to marry his mother and

There were many decisions made by the characters throughout the story which, if altered, would have drastically changed the outcome of the play. The shepherd made the choice to send baby Oedipus away with an old man of another kingdom: “I pitied the little man, master, hoped he’d take him off to his own country” (Sophocles 1301-1302). If Oedipus had been raised in Thebes instead of Corinth, he may not have fulfilled the prophecy. Had he been raised with Jocasta, she would have at least recognized his face. She most likely would have killed herself before marrying her son, for that is how she reacted in the play when she learned to whom she was wedded: “...[W]e saw the woman hanging by the neck...” (Sophocles 1395). There were other decisions that Oedipus could have made along the way as well, which would have changed the outcome of his life. One example is his choice to continue his investigation into Laius’s death, even

To have a fatalistic perspective on the experiences one acquires is to believe that humans do not partake in the development of our fate — that one’s future is inculcated in one’s story. Ergo, the implication is that the role of choice is limited. In a quixotic world, fate would work in conjunction with quotidian choices and, therefore, create a favorable outcome. Relating back to ancient Greek literature, playwright Sophocles wrote a play named Oedipus the King that addresses the nuanced roles of fate and free will — whether one encounters adversity as a result of their self-imposed actions or their predetermined path. This ambiguity of the interconnected roles of fate and free will allows for an intricate development of the theme. As Oedipus attempts to evade his prophesied fate, which leads to an unraveling of events that allows for the fall of Oedipus as a tragic hero, fate and free will make themselves present through character development, motifs, and metaphorical symbolism.

“What's meant to be will always find a way” by Trisha Yearwood, it is an inspirational quote that applies to every human being. Even so, it’s imperative, when it has to deal with a person’s fate. There will be obstacles that may deter a person’s future. It can likewise make a man so focused on his needs that they may have, which will later result in disappointment to the people around them. People are neglectful in the decisions they make because they are sure that if they get what they need, joy will undoubtedly be inevitable for them. The same fate had happened to Sophocles protagonist Oedipus the king, who had tried to avoid his fate by running away, but eventually, he could not avoid his fate. This essay will discuss how Oedipus tried to avoid his fate and how he could have stopped his future from coming to past.