Among today’s society a strong majority of people believe that our lives can be led by an external force, a divine power, that controls our fate. However, a debate that continues today questions whether we as humans have the ability to make choices in free will or allow that divine power to limit us and control our destiny. In the critically acclaimed play, Oedipus the King and the academy award nominated movie, Matchpoint the protagonist both seem to have the power to orchestrate their fate by using their power of free will however an overseeing power seems to have stepped in and serve justice but unequally in both works.
To begin with Oedipus and Chris are served completely different sorts of punishments as too the crimes they commit. Oedipus suffers a severe punishment that he bestows upon himself. The punishment that Oedipus faces is by far more physical than Chris gets. After seeing Jocasta dead corpse hanging realizing there dead is his mother and his beloved wife he reaches his ultimate low of lows. With disgust filled inside of him he “ripped out golden pins with which her clothes were fastened, raised them high above his hard, and speared the pupils of his eyes” (73). This punishment is not only gory but also follows the prophecies that were told to him by Tiresias that he would be blind to his surroundings. Therefore since the prophecy was followed this act was thus strictly guided by a divine power as his fate was handed to him. However with his punishment Justice was given to the murder of Laius. Not only was the culprit found but he is
Balakrishnan, 2 also sent “in exile – away from Thebes” (82). There is clear tangible justice given to the murdered victim. Chris however was served a completely different punishment. He seemed to have been punished emotionally with the extreme guilt in his heart. When he sees the ghost of the two victims he murdered in his dream it was clear that he was not going to forget his