Can You Truly Ever Escape?

"Tiresias, master of all omens-public and secret, in the sky and on the earth-your mind, if not your eyes, sees how the city lives with a plague" (Sophocles 1.305). When asked to reveal the pollutant, Tiresias was apprehensive do to the understanding of what he knew. "Let me go home! If you will listen to me, You will endure your troubles better-and I mine (1.325). Tiriesias' wisdom was so great that once he revealed it, even Oedipus cried out that the profit was not blind. Sophocles points out that there is great power behind understanding through Tiresias. Oedipus could not escape his destiny and had lack of free will to do as he pleased. His life was mapped out for him the moment he was brought into the world.

In life, ones fate is already set. The choices one makes influence everything else in their life. Often, fate throws unexpected situations at you and one must learn how to interpret the reasoning behind it. Many believers in fate think for every bad situation that occurs a positive one will follow. Fate is something that you can’t control. All actions whether they may be in the past, present, or future occur because they are meant to. Everything happens for a reason, and everyone handles situations differently.

One of the greatest debates in human history is fate vs free will and does fate even exist. It is a question that has been asked for centuries across many different cultures (Dennin 2016). Fate still has a impact on people today. The modern day argument isn't about being a force for good or evil like in Beowulf's culture, it is whether or not fate even exists. Everyone claims to know the answer but no one truly does. In the anglo saxon culture fate was the common belief. Not as many people now believe in fate as they did in Beowulf’s times but “52 percent of Americans say that they do believe in fate while only 29 percent do not believe in fate” (Moore, 2015). This means that fate is not as big of a deal nowadays then it was back then. Fates meaning and importance has changed but it still affects people's views and beliefs today.

Fate is the belief that something is destined to happen by a more godly figure and free will is the belief that it is not suppose to happen but

Fate is something we have no control over. It can be what determines the death of a child or marriage of a couple. Fate is very controversial. If everything that happens is planned ahead it contradicts many things, one being religion. If it was fate that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit then the original sin would not be the fault of man, but of God for he would be the one who made Adam and Eve do it. It is something no one can

Fate can be thought as life being predetermined for the entirety of your days. From the early writings of Homer, specifically in the poem, The Iliad, there is a clear representation of whether it is free will or fate after all. Although we may never know whether there is a predetermined path or rather just free, it can only make one wonder. For most Greek Mythology, it is been evident that most of people’s decisions were not free will but rather fate itself. While people think they have free will, it may just be fate after all.

Fate is a mysterious force. There are the non-believers, saying that you are responsible for your actions and not controlled by this so called ‘destiny,’ able to change your life at any point you wish to. Demonstrated in stories such as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, these tales showcase how a crabby old miser and a mysterious man change the course of their futures. Meanwhile, there are many stories, myths, and even religions that emphasize how fate controls your life; that you are on a predestined path. Edgar Allen Poe seems to share this view on the subject. His short story, The Masque of the Red Death, exemplifies how no matter what you do to protect yourself, fate will find you and do its bidding. Despite his

What I think about fate, free will, and destiny is that we choose the way we want things to be and what we want to do with our future. So, in my opinion, we all choose our destiny because of the choices that we make. By making the right choices you can live the way you always wanted. The novel Fahrenheit 451 has a lot to do with the question because it talks about what the main character fate was and he also did some things that he shouldn’t have done and that counts as free will. This book has a couple of parts that show the fate and the free will the characters made and had to make.

Fate is the belief that a greater power has planned out your life. Freewill means that humans have control of their life. Fate says that you are not responsible for your actions and anything that happens to you is by chance. Freewill is the ability to choose courses of action, and there is a logical reason for everything. Humans have control of their destiny and what they do is their responsibilities. Do we humans have control of our lives destiny or are humans controlled by outside forces meaning they are not responsible for their actions?

Generally, fate refers to the development of events beyond a person’s control (Aurobindo). As such, a fatalist is a person who believes that whatever happens is, and always was, unavoidable. Moreover, such a person strongly believes that he or she has no control over what happens the next moment, tomorrow, next year, or several years to come. Free will, on the other hand, is formed by the power of sanction (Aurobindo). In other words, it is consent by the spirit that it shall not be bound but that its enjoyment should be bound by time, space, and causality and by the swabhava and the dharma (Aurobindo). To determine whether fate or free will controls human lives, it is important to objectively analyse, synthesizes, and respond to the “critical conversation” that the authors of class readings seem to be engaging with regard to this subject. In connection to this, humanity has been fascinated by fate and free will for a long time. Some philosophers in the Ancient Greek and the Middle Ages believed that free will influenced human destiny while others believed that fate was responsible for what befell mankind.

Fate is the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin and other judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. A choice is something that you make.

Free will is when you make choices yourself. Fate is when life has a certain plan and it works out without you making your own choices. In the play “Macbeth” he was a fierce warrior and had a lot of bravery. Macbeth had choices to make that would change his life forever. He killed a couple people and he was lying to all of his people. Macbeth was controlled by fate.

In conclusion, Free will is stronger than fate because most of the actions that happen in this world are not just coincidences or meant to happen it’s mainly the action of one making a decision. Yes fate does sometimes happen but likely they are caused by freewill or will become

In “Oedipus,” Sophocles writes about a man who is hunted down by his cruel fate, and whose life is ruined in attempt to run away from it. The ancient Greek perspective reflects on the matter of the story and how the god’s highly influence the lives of humans. This viewpoint basically shows the unbounded power the Greek gods have; by being the gods of destiny, and leaving man at a helpless position. Fate plays a massive role in the lives of humans and as was believed by the ancient Greeks, their lives were simply directed by a decision of gods and goddesses. Oedipus knew his fate set by a curse cast on him; however, even when being aware it is impossible to escape fate, he still attempted to run away from it. As the play progresses Oedipus begins to understand the unbearable truth as he states “I’ve called down a dreadful curse upon myself,” followed by a response “I simply didn’t know!” (1103). It is the will of the man to realize what is inevitable and what choice is. In the Ancient Greece, Gods were praised and worshiped and any command stated by them is the undecided future. Oedipus acting as a blinded man who did not know of such fact led him to his fate and ironically is what later led him to blind himself (Gould). When Oedipus stabs his eyes out with the

Ignorance can blind an individual from the truth. Plays were of great importance in early Greek culture. Plays were the main source of entertainment, and one of the most exceptional examples is Oedipus the King written by Sophocles. The drama is tremendously uplifted by the character development and the excellent structure Sophocles has put forward. Interactions between characters and each character’s motivations generate brilliant themes throughout the play. Sophocles uses a technique called recognition, which illustrates a character’s turn from ignorance to the truth. The play is about the city of Thebes which is racked by a plague and a crisis that is quickly wiping humans from the earth. The great king of Thebes is Oedipus who must dispose of the problem very quickly. He welcomes information from the god Apollo, who says Oedipus must punish the killer of the former king, Laius. In one of the instances where Oedipus tries to find the killer, he encounters Tiresias, who is a physically blind man but can see everything because he is a prophet of Apollo. Tiresias possesses the information but declines to cooperate with Oedipus. After a series of verbal insults, the audience is left in awe when Tiresias puts the blame on Oedipus. Similarly to Oedipus the King, dialogue “Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato also in the early Greek times, shows that ignorance can lead an individual to be blind from the truth. Sophocles magnificently develops a question of “Who sees and who is blind”. Also in Oedipus the King, Sophocles exhibits how selflessness and ignorance can blind a person from the truth, but eventually has to go through recognition which can cause great agony.