Fate Versus Free Will Essay

Throughout the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses both fate and free will to present his philosophy towards the nature of love. The characters struggle through confusion and conflicts to be with the one they love. Although the course of their love did not go well, love ultimately triumphs over all at the end of the play. The chaos reaches a climax causing great disruption among the lovers. However, the turmoil is eventually resolved by Puck, who fixes his mistake. The confusion then ends and the lovers are with their true love. Throughout the play Shakespeare's philosophy was displayed in various scenes, and his concept still holds true in modern society.

Oedipus summons Herdsman, formerly of Laios’ house. Herdsman confesses, the child he gave to Oedipus’ parents “was said to be Laios’ own son,” (737). That child was indeed Oedipus. All the prophecies were proven to be true. Oedipus killed his own father and slept with his own mother. Till the very end, he follows his fate. Feeling despair, Oedipus stabs his eyes out. As I mentioned before, Tiresias warns him that “Your eyes, which now see life, / will then see darkness” (719). Oedipus begs Kreon to exile him out of Thebes because he can’t bear the weight of the truth. The curse he placed on the murderer at the beginning, “he’ll suffer nothing worse than exile” (714), is now placed on him. His free will to act leads to his final destined

This information makes Oedipus uneasy. He recalls having killed a man answering Laius' description at this very spot when he was fleeing from his home in Corinth to avoid fulfillment of a similar prophecy. An aged messenger arrives from Corinth, at this point, to announce the death of King Polybus, supposed father of Oedipus, and the election of Oedipus as king in his stead. On account of the old prophecy Oedipus refuses to return to Corinth until his mother, too, is dead. To calm his fears the messenger assures him that he is not the blood son of Polybus and Merope, but a foundling from the house of Laius deserted in the mountains. This statement is confirmed by the old shepherd whom Jocasta had charged with the task of exposing her babe. Thus the ancient prophecy has been fulfilled in each

fate or determinism and say this was all planned out from the beginning of time knowing some things in nature happen randomly--

However, in his attempts to escape the prophecy, Oedipus ran straight to it. At the time, he was unaware that he had been adopted. Instead of escaping his fate, Oedipus met Laius on the road and murdered him and four of his escorts out of anger and self-defense. This was the first event, though not actually shown in the play, that set Oedipus’s destiny into motion.

Fate and free will in the Matrix, fate is non-negotiable as the world is preprogramed. Human actions are predetermined so free will does not exist. When Morpheus offers neo the choice to follow him down the ‘rabbit hole’ or ‘stay in wonderland’ he is offering him the choice between fate and free will. In the scene where Neo first meets the Oracle, there is the possibility of learning what his fate is and his identity. In the final scene, Trinity reveals that she is not afraid to accept her fate in loving Neo; the filmmaker draws attention to the importance of the decision-making, which is at the heart of the fate and free will dichotomy.

Oedipus the King is a tragedy that displays irony throughout the play. In the play, King Laius and his wife Jocasta learn that in the prophecy their newborn son, Oedipus, will kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent the prophecy from occurring, they decide to bind and tie his ankles and then abandoned him. When Oedipus grew up, he eventually learned about this prophecy and decided to leave his parents. What he did not realize was that the parents who raised him were not his biological parents. On his voyage to Thebes, Oedipus ended up in a chariot accident

Fate or free will is evident in the poem The Iliad. In the Iliad, there are endless struggle between the ideas of fate against free will, throughout the whole poem. More specifically, in Books 6 and 22, it shows

Oedipus begins to realize that he is wrong and that the prophet is right. Oedipus talks to Jocasta, who heard from the one man who went home safe from the murder. The man said that it was more than one robber that killed Laius and if that is true the prophet is wrong “I’ll tell you; if I find that his story is the same as yours…clearly the burden of the guilt inclines towards me.” (Sophocles 974-982). Oedipus left Corinth in attempts to escape his fate, but he is wanted to be the king. The messenger tells Oedipus that who he thought was his father (Polybus) is in fact not his father. (Sophocles 1147-1149). The messenger then told Oedipus that he was taken from a Shepard, the Shepard of Laius. (Sophocles 1182-1188) it is said that Laius’s son had his feet pierced and when the messenger was telling Oedipus about where he came from who told him that his feet were pierced giving more proof that Oedipus I indeed the son of Laius. After knowing this the king brought forth the Shepard who then made it clear that he was the son of Laius. (1329-1339) Oedipus accepted his fate and said in lines 1363 through 1368

The concept of fate is a recurring theme in Greek myth and holds more significance than the basic idea of destiny. Destiny, defined simply, comprises the final events that happen to a particular person or thing in the future. In contrast, fate concerns itself more with the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power (Oxford 2014). There are many supernatural powers in Greek mythology that influence fate—gods, goddesses, demigods, monsters and even the Fates themselves. The inability of any mortal or immortal to change prescribed outcomes stems from the three Moerae, “Fates”: sisters Clotho, who spins the thread of life; Lachesis, who assigns each person’s destiny; and Atropos, who carries

Jocasta tells Oedipus about the prophecy that Laius will be killed by his son. Oedipus began to panic and believe that he was Laius’ murderer. Feeling guilty of incest and parricide, he is willing to accept his punishment, but he has yet to fully understand the

Oedipus is the son of Laios and Iokaste. When Oedipus is born, his parents are warned about his fate. Oedipus is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Laios and Iokaste believe it is best to give the

Oedipus’ life sets in motion before he is ever born. The King Laius and his wife Jocasta are expecting a child; the Oracle told them that their son will kill his father and marry his mother. The king and his wife do the unthinkable to their child in fear for their lives. The King “pieced his little feet and tied them together” (Ed Friedlander) and leaves him in the mountains to die. First, we need to analyze this situation. Was this the norm in this era to do such drastic harm to their child? Could the King and Queen have done something differently that would have spared their child and their lives? We ask ourselves what if they had kept their son but, maybe told him about the prophecy when he was older. According to the research from Friedlander, it was normal for parents to leave a defective baby

He sends his newly born son off to be left on a mountain with his ankles pinned together. However fate would have it that the child lived on, as the Shepard sent to do this task took pity on him and sent off to the land of Corinth. Years later Oedipus, the prince of Corinth, is told a prophecy by Apollo, that he will marry his own mother and destroy his father with blood on his hands. Attempting to escape his fate, Oedipus runs away and never

When Oedipus was a baby his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes, received an oracle (a message/messenger from a god) that their baby son would one day kill his father and marry his mother. The parents soon decided just to get rid of the baby and have him killed, so none of this would happen. His parents gave him to their messenger, who was supposed to tie his feet to the side of the mountain. The shepherd of King Polybus and Queen Merope found the baby and gave him to them. Oedipus grew up in Corinth and thought these people were his parents. Laius and Jocasta went on with their lives because they thought their son was dead, which made the oracle false.