Oedipus Rex: A Victim Of Fate Or His Own Will?
Q : Oedipus Rex –A Victim of Fate or his Own Will ?
The play Oedipus by Sophocles is a play whose focus is the interplay between fate and free will. The story basically goes like this: Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother as he learned from the Oracle at Delphi. So, Oedipus does everything to escape-he runs from his own land and starts his life over. However, Oedipus is a character that clearly demonstrates that no matter how much free will men assert, fate has already written the events of one 's life.
Oedipus himself does everything to avoid the various prophecies made about him, but in the end, is a victim of fate.
The first example of fate is that Oedipus sends Creon to the temple of Apollo to find out how to get rid of the plague of Thebes. This is how he learns of his own fate as well. "I sent Meoceus son of Creon , Jocasta 's brother, to Apollo, that he might learn there by what act or word I could save this city" (70-74). Creon then sends for Tiresius. Against his will and after much discussion, he reveals the fate of Oedipus. He tells …show more content…
Oedipus that he is the murderer of the king and that by the end of the day, he will become a blind beggar and he will find out that he is both the son and husband of his own wife, and the brother and father to his own children. As Tiresias says, "I say you are the murderer of the king whose murderer you seek" (362). Again Tiresias says, "I say that with those you love best you live in foulest shame unconsciously and do not see where you are in calamity" (366-368). He is telling Oedipus of his fate. Oedipus cannot accept his fate even at this point.
Oedipus makes fun of Tiresias for being blind and Tiresias says, "You have your eyes but see not where you are in sin, nor where you live, nor whom you live with" (413).
Oedipus is clearly shown his own fate, not that he believes it. After he learns this he takes his own journey and learns the same thing. Oedipus himself took a trip to the Oracle of Delphi without his foster parents, Polybus and Merope, knowing about it. What he found out was that there was a dreadful future for him So, he runs away from Corinth so that this prophecy can never come true, thus trying to run from his own fate. "When I heard this, and in the days that followed I would measure from the stars the whereabouts of Corinth-yes, I fled to somewhere where I should not see fulfilled the infamies told in that dreadful oracle" (792-793). He feels at this point that he should be safe from the fate of the oracle, but he is
not.
Then when he was on the road running away, a man tried to run him off the road. Oedipus hit him and killed him.
"On my way I came to this place where you say this king Louis met his death. I will tell you the truth, all of it. As I journeyed on I came to this tripe crossroads and there I was met by a herald and a man riding a horse-drawn wagon, just as you described it. The driver, the old man himself, tried to push me off the road. In anger I struck the driver as he tried to crowd me off. When the old man saw me coming pas the wheels he aimed at my head with a two-pronged goad, and hit me. I paid him back in full, with interest: in no time at all he was hit by the stick I held in my hand and rolled backwards from the center of the wagon. I killed the lot of them" (810-820).
What he doesn 't know at the time is that he has killed his own father, thus fulfilling part of the prophecy. He then weds his mother and has children. Near the end of the play he finds out that the rest of the prophecy has also come true.
Fate is fulfilled with finding out the entire prophecy has been true. Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus "tore the...gold chased brooches fastening her robe away from her and lifting them up high dashed them into his own eyeballs" (1267-1270) This is exactly what Tiresius had told him. "A deadly footed, double striking curse, from father and mother both, shall drive you forth out of this land, with darkness on your eyes that have now strait vision" (416-420). Oedipus has become the blind nomad that the Oracle and Tiresius said he would be. Fate has come full circle.
Jocasta tries to escape her fate as well. After her husband received his prophecy as Delphi, Jocasta gives the baby away to be destroyed. She believes if she kills the baby, its fate will not be able to come true. But she can 't do it herself, so she depends on a shepherd to kill her child. Of course, he does not. She and Oedipus call the shepherd back to hear what he has to say of this event so many years ago.
"Oedipus-Did she give it to you?
Shepherd-Yes, my lord, she did...To make away with it.
Oedipus-How was it that you gave it away to this old man?
Shepherd-In pity master. I thought he would take it away to a foreign country-to the place he came from. If you are the man he says you are, you were born the most unfortunate of men." (1170-1175).
The shepherd mad the decisions to spare the baby 's life, thus setting it up for the fate of Oedipus to be fulfilled. The shepherd believed that sending Oedipus so far away would help him avoid his faith; he did not want to kill the infant.
Near the end of the play Jocasta tells the story of the fate of her husband King Laius went to the Oracle of Delphi where he received the prophecy that Oedipus was going to kill him and marry Jocasta. King Lauis is obviously another character who tried to avoid his fate but did not succeed. Jocasta says, "and it told him that it was fate that he should die a victim at the hands of his own son, a son to be born of Laius and me. But, see now, he the king, was killed by foreign highway robbers at a place where three roads meet-so goes the story" (715-718). Jocasta and Oedipus began putting everything together at this point of the story. Oedipus begins questioning Jocasta about what the king looked like and how old he was. He starts to understand that the fate of all three of them had come true-Laius, Jocasta, and Oedipus.
"You said that he spoke of highway robbers who killed Laius. Now if he uses the same number, it was not I who killed him. One man cannot be the same as many. But if he speaks of a man traveling alone, then clearly the burden of the guilt inclines toward me" (840-845).
Then when he has put it all together Oedipus says: "Was I not born evil? Am I not utterly unclean? I had to fly and in my banishment not even see my kindred nor set foot in my own country, or otherwise my fate was to be yoked in marriage with my mother and kill by father," (823-825). As noted earlier, Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus pokes his eyes out as the resolution of the story and the fulfillment of his fate.
In this play Sophocles clearly shows the reader that both fate and free will exist inside each character. However, the free will that people have is only up to a point inside the fate. In other words, people can assert free will to make minor choices and follow paths in life. That free will does not change a person 's fate. The book of one 's life has been written and while people can change the individual adventures on the pages themselves, the milestones and the endings will be the same. All three characters-Oedipus, Jocasta, and King Lauis show the reader that fate does control lives.
Works Cited Oedipus the King. Translated by David Grene 1954.
Oedipus will fulfill the prophecy delivered by the oracle before his birth. He tries to avoid his fate and believes that he has outsmarted the gods by leaving Corinth. He obviously believes in the concept of predestination but refuses to obey it himself. Like Laius and Jocasta, who tried to kill him after his birth, he sought ways to escape his horrible destiny. The chorus takes the side of the gods and preaches their power throughout the play, only deviating from this position once. "But if any man comes striding, high and mighty/in all he says and does,/"¦let a rough doom tear him down" (Bernstein, pp. 56-79). The mortal who ignores the laws of the Universe exhibits hubris and is doomed to fail. If Oedipus manages to avoid the prophecy he will diminish belief in the power of the gods. A paradox surfaces when the chorus fears he may prove the gods wrong, But at the same time fears that the prophecies not prove to be true. Although Oedipus shuns the idea of fate and the lack of free will, it is evident that he believes in and is fearful of them. After hearing rumors that he was not "his father 's son" (Bernstein, pp. 56-79), Oedipus turns to the oracle and discovers that he will someday kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus flees in a desperate attempt to escape, proving that he believes in fate. If he had control, he would have no reason to run. During his travels, Oedipus meets with a "brace of colts/drawing a wagon" (Bernstein, pp. 56-79), and after being thrust off the road he reacts violently and kills all but one man. Oedipus fled because he was afraid he would fulfill the prophecy. His actions support the argument that free will does exist. He knew what was prophesized yet still acted in rage and Committed murder rather than trying to avoid it. Oedipus cannot be held responsible for the life set out for him by the gods. He can, however, be accused of having too much pride, which inevitably leads to his own downfall. Perhaps he could not have prevented the actual patricide and smarmy incest, but he could have allowed himself to realize his identity. Oedipus is merely an unfortunate victim of circumstance. He possesses the ability to make his own decisions within the structure created by the gods. Oedipus displayed free will by killing Laius at the crossroads .
The play Oedipus by Sophocles is a play whose focus is the interplay between fate and free will. The story basically goes like this: Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother as he learned from the Oracle at Delphi. So, Oedipus does everything to escape-he runs from his own land and starts his life over. However, Oedipus is a character that clearly demonstrates that no matter how much free will men assert, fate has already written the events of one 's life.
Oedipus himself does everything to avoid the various prophecies made about him, but in the end, is a victim of fate.
The first example of fate is that Oedipus sends Creon to the temple of Apollo to find out how to get rid of the plague of Thebes. This is how he learns of his own fate as well. "I sent Meoceus son of Creon , Jocasta 's brother, to Apollo, that he might learn there by what act or word I could save this city" (70-74). Creon then sends for Tiresius. Against his will and after much discussion, he reveals the fate of Oedipus. He tells …show more content…
Oedipus that he is the murderer of the king and that by the end of the day, he will become a blind beggar and he will find out that he is both the son and husband of his own wife, and the brother and father to his own children. As Tiresias says, "I say you are the murderer of the king whose murderer you seek" (362). Again Tiresias says, "I say that with those you love best you live in foulest shame unconsciously and do not see where you are in calamity" (366-368). He is telling Oedipus of his fate. Oedipus cannot accept his fate even at this point.
Oedipus makes fun of Tiresias for being blind and Tiresias says, "You have your eyes but see not where you are in sin, nor where you live, nor whom you live with" (413).
Oedipus is clearly shown his own fate, not that he believes it. After he learns this he takes his own journey and learns the same thing. Oedipus himself took a trip to the Oracle of Delphi without his foster parents, Polybus and Merope, knowing about it. What he found out was that there was a dreadful future for him So, he runs away from Corinth so that this prophecy can never come true, thus trying to run from his own fate. "When I heard this, and in the days that followed I would measure from the stars the whereabouts of Corinth-yes, I fled to somewhere where I should not see fulfilled the infamies told in that dreadful oracle" (792-793). He feels at this point that he should be safe from the fate of the oracle, but he is
not.
Then when he was on the road running away, a man tried to run him off the road. Oedipus hit him and killed him.
"On my way I came to this place where you say this king Louis met his death. I will tell you the truth, all of it. As I journeyed on I came to this tripe crossroads and there I was met by a herald and a man riding a horse-drawn wagon, just as you described it. The driver, the old man himself, tried to push me off the road. In anger I struck the driver as he tried to crowd me off. When the old man saw me coming pas the wheels he aimed at my head with a two-pronged goad, and hit me. I paid him back in full, with interest: in no time at all he was hit by the stick I held in my hand and rolled backwards from the center of the wagon. I killed the lot of them" (810-820).
What he doesn 't know at the time is that he has killed his own father, thus fulfilling part of the prophecy. He then weds his mother and has children. Near the end of the play he finds out that the rest of the prophecy has also come true.
Fate is fulfilled with finding out the entire prophecy has been true. Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus "tore the...gold chased brooches fastening her robe away from her and lifting them up high dashed them into his own eyeballs" (1267-1270) This is exactly what Tiresius had told him. "A deadly footed, double striking curse, from father and mother both, shall drive you forth out of this land, with darkness on your eyes that have now strait vision" (416-420). Oedipus has become the blind nomad that the Oracle and Tiresius said he would be. Fate has come full circle.
Jocasta tries to escape her fate as well. After her husband received his prophecy as Delphi, Jocasta gives the baby away to be destroyed. She believes if she kills the baby, its fate will not be able to come true. But she can 't do it herself, so she depends on a shepherd to kill her child. Of course, he does not. She and Oedipus call the shepherd back to hear what he has to say of this event so many years ago.
"Oedipus-Did she give it to you?
Shepherd-Yes, my lord, she did...To make away with it.
Oedipus-How was it that you gave it away to this old man?
Shepherd-In pity master. I thought he would take it away to a foreign country-to the place he came from. If you are the man he says you are, you were born the most unfortunate of men." (1170-1175).
The shepherd mad the decisions to spare the baby 's life, thus setting it up for the fate of Oedipus to be fulfilled. The shepherd believed that sending Oedipus so far away would help him avoid his faith; he did not want to kill the infant.
Near the end of the play Jocasta tells the story of the fate of her husband King Laius went to the Oracle of Delphi where he received the prophecy that Oedipus was going to kill him and marry Jocasta. King Lauis is obviously another character who tried to avoid his fate but did not succeed. Jocasta says, "and it told him that it was fate that he should die a victim at the hands of his own son, a son to be born of Laius and me. But, see now, he the king, was killed by foreign highway robbers at a place where three roads meet-so goes the story" (715-718). Jocasta and Oedipus began putting everything together at this point of the story. Oedipus begins questioning Jocasta about what the king looked like and how old he was. He starts to understand that the fate of all three of them had come true-Laius, Jocasta, and Oedipus.
"You said that he spoke of highway robbers who killed Laius. Now if he uses the same number, it was not I who killed him. One man cannot be the same as many. But if he speaks of a man traveling alone, then clearly the burden of the guilt inclines toward me" (840-845).
Then when he has put it all together Oedipus says: "Was I not born evil? Am I not utterly unclean? I had to fly and in my banishment not even see my kindred nor set foot in my own country, or otherwise my fate was to be yoked in marriage with my mother and kill by father," (823-825). As noted earlier, Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus pokes his eyes out as the resolution of the story and the fulfillment of his fate.
In this play Sophocles clearly shows the reader that both fate and free will exist inside each character. However, the free will that people have is only up to a point inside the fate. In other words, people can assert free will to make minor choices and follow paths in life. That free will does not change a person 's fate. The book of one 's life has been written and while people can change the individual adventures on the pages themselves, the milestones and the endings will be the same. All three characters-Oedipus, Jocasta, and King Lauis show the reader that fate does control lives.
Works Cited Oedipus the King. Translated by David Grene 1954.
Oedipus will fulfill the prophecy delivered by the oracle before his birth. He tries to avoid his fate and believes that he has outsmarted the gods by leaving Corinth. He obviously believes in the concept of predestination but refuses to obey it himself. Like Laius and Jocasta, who tried to kill him after his birth, he sought ways to escape his horrible destiny. The chorus takes the side of the gods and preaches their power throughout the play, only deviating from this position once. "But if any man comes striding, high and mighty/in all he says and does,/"¦let a rough doom tear him down" (Bernstein, pp. 56-79). The mortal who ignores the laws of the Universe exhibits hubris and is doomed to fail. If Oedipus manages to avoid the prophecy he will diminish belief in the power of the gods. A paradox surfaces when the chorus fears he may prove the gods wrong, But at the same time fears that the prophecies not prove to be true. Although Oedipus shuns the idea of fate and the lack of free will, it is evident that he believes in and is fearful of them. After hearing rumors that he was not "his father 's son" (Bernstein, pp. 56-79), Oedipus turns to the oracle and discovers that he will someday kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus flees in a desperate attempt to escape, proving that he believes in fate. If he had control, he would have no reason to run. During his travels, Oedipus meets with a "brace of colts/drawing a wagon" (Bernstein, pp. 56-79), and after being thrust off the road he reacts violently and kills all but one man. Oedipus fled because he was afraid he would fulfill the prophecy. His actions support the argument that free will does exist. He knew what was prophesized yet still acted in rage and Committed murder rather than trying to avoid it. Oedipus cannot be held responsible for the life set out for him by the gods. He can, however, be accused of having too much pride, which inevitably leads to his own downfall. Perhaps he could not have prevented the actual patricide and smarmy incest, but he could have allowed himself to realize his identity. Oedipus is merely an unfortunate victim of circumstance. He possesses the ability to make his own decisions within the structure created by the gods. Oedipus displayed free will by killing Laius at the crossroads .