Examples Of Free Will In Oedipus Rex

Oedipus the King: Is it Free will or Fate? The play Oedipus the King written by Sophocles, tells a great story about a king, prophecies, and fate vs. free will. Oedipus is a noble king, who treats his followers with respect and has immense loyalty to them, but he is not perfect and has weaknesses as well. Throughout, the play it seems as though it is fate leading Oedipus through his trials and tribulations but is it really? In the beginning, Oedipus learns that the man who killed King Laios was never brought to justice and now the land of Thebes is being punished for this, so Oedipus curses the said murderer. In cursing the murderer, he states that it also applies to him, “I pray that that man’s life be consumed in evil and wretchedness/ And as for me, this curse applies no less” (1213, 31-32). At the time, Oedipus says that he had never heard of the tale of King Laios murder, but later he discovers that it was him who killed King Laios. Oedipus has known about the prophecy that said “Apollo said through his prophet that I was the man / Who should marry his own mother, shed his father’s blood” (1231, 81-82). Even after knowing this he killed
ng Laios unbeknown to him who was his father, this was Oedipus’s free will, if he had thought not to kill a man because he might make the prophecy come true he would have never encountered these