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How Does Oedipus Have Free Will

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Greek Tragedy as viewed from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King brings forth that humanism is always in a struggle for free will, but no matter how hard a person struggles fate fulfills its destiny. The irony with Oedipus is that the audience understood that fate had her way well before King Oedipus acknowledge that his free will did not exist. Oedipus when he first heard of the oracles prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, attempted to invoke his freewill by running away from home so that he would never lift his spear to kill his father, but running away from his fate simple caused him to run directly into it. Sad part is that Oedipus thought he had successfully avoided fate prediction for his life. Likewise, Laius and …show more content…

Likewise, by the fates design there three day old son was rescued and found refuge in another kingdom. All three, Oedipus, Laius and Jocasta attempted to exercise freewill but only met their destiny along fate’s predetermined road. By the time the audience is introduced into the story all of the oracles predictions have come to pass. This dramatic irony of Sophocles decision to inform the audience that Oedipus is the cause of the plague upon the land precedes Oedipus ability or desire to accept. This drives the point that fate is in full control of the life of the people. Dr. Arnold Weinstein pointed out that the encounter and dialogue between Oedipus and Teiresias was volatile that caused Oedipus in a rage to retaliate not only against the seer, but Creon as well. Oedipus tries to discredit Teiresias as prophet and seer by asking why he didn’t help with the defeat of the Sphinx . Furthermore Oedipus falsely accuses Creon of attempting to take the

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