Oedipus The King, Fate And Destiny

In the tragedy, Oedipus the King, fate is a predetermined course of events and is also an important factor that caused Oedipus’s downfall. Oedipus is ultimately a victim of his own fate because, despite his and Jocasta’s efforts, he could not escape the prophecies. Though others say that Oedipus created his own fate because he had the free will to handle the prophecies in becoming his own outcome, in the end, there was no chance that Oedipus could escape the prophecies. It was the fate for Oedipus getting saved after being left to die by his parents. Also, the gods brought the plague into Oedipus’s city, which caused him to search for the murderer of Laius. The truth behind the prophecy was also planned for Oedipus before he even knows it.

Fate is defined as the development of events beyond a person’s control. In “Oedipus the King,” Sophocles, tells us about a tragic hero (Oedipus) in which his life is predetermined by fate, because he is deprived of free will. The first act of fate on Oedipus was him being saved by a shepherd when his parents (Queen Jocasta and King Laius) left him in the mountains to die, he then met and killed his father without knowing who he was, and last, he married Queen Jocasta, later realizing that she was his mother. Every action that Oedipus took to prevent his fate, would soon be the ultimate downfall, not only for himself, but for his family and the people of Thebes.

In Oedipus the King, the theme of fate vs free will appears all through the play. Oedipus throughout the play tries to avoid his inevitable fate, which ironically seems to make his fate come

Sophocles states that “Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war. No fort will keep it out, no ships outrun it.” Fate derives from a Latin word, fatum, meaning that one’s future is predetermined. In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles unfolds the misfortune of a noble king who searches for knowledge. Evidently, Greek heroes like Oedipus are destined to rule, but are also bound to fall, therefore, he cannot alter his own fate. This tragic play proves that the power of fate is indeed stronger than one’s free will. Despite his attempts to fight his destiny, Oedipus can never outrun his fate. Regardless of his parents’ desperation to evade the predicted outcome, fate guides his journey for knowledge, leading to his destruction.

Sophocles' Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy. In the play, Oedipus and his parents try to avoid the prophecy that has been cast upon them. The prophecy stated that Oedipus would kill his father, Laius, and marry his mother, Jocasta. While trying to outwit the divine will of the gods, they ultimately play right into fate’s hands and the prophecy becomes true. Throughout the duration of the story, Sophocles uses dramatic techniques such as the blindness motif to get the lesson across to the audience. Through this motif, Sophocles suggests to not be blind to fate, because destiny can never be escaped.

In Sophocles tragic Greek story of Oedipus the King, the author wanted to prove to the people of Greece that the Greek gods are all powerful and that one’s fate is established in advance and you cannot change what is already set in stone. Sophocles shows this by telling the readers that this story is about people who try to avoid their fate and shows that it doesn’t do any good because eventually when it comes down to it, what the oracles predict ended up being the truth. In this story there are a lot of situations where people try to avoid their fate. The play is about a man named Oedipus who is ill fated to what was predicted by the Oracle at Delphi before he was even born. Oedipus is informed of his fate and right away he tries to hinder it from happening, just like his father and mother tried to do.

Oedipus’ fate is one that he learns relatively early in his life, and takes measures to avoid; however, ultimately the measures that he takes to avoid his fate are what bring it about. Oedipus is told that “what will be, will be” (Sophocles 35) no matter what he does, but nevertheless he chooses not to listen and instead tries to hunt down the truth, despite being told to “not do [this]” (Sophocles 55). In this, Sophocles presents the reader with the greatest irony of the entire play: by utilising his free will to try to escape his fate, Oedipus only manages to fulfill his fate. Upon hearing of Oedipus’ horrible misfortune, the Chorus proclaims “all the generations of mortal man add up to nothing” (Sophocles 59). In the end, the choices Oedipus made in life didn’t change anything; he still fulfilled the prophecy by wedding his mother and killing his father. However, this is not to say that Oedipus didn’t possess or utilize free will. In life, Oedipus acts on his own terms; however, at the same time Oedipus’ life is heavily influenced by his refusal to accept his fate. By placing the concepts of fate and free will so closely together, Sophocles forces the reader to consider their relationship with each other. The Shepherd tells Oedipus “If you are the man, O then your life is lost” (Sophocles 58). This starkly

People, historically, have thought that fate and free will are intertwined and play equally important roles in one’s life, but this does not apply to ancient Greek thought. For instance, Sophocles, a Greek tragedy playwright, and the Greeks at his time believed that a person’s destiny was foreordained before birth, decided by the triple goddesses called the Fates, or Moirai. In Sophocles’ play, Oedipus Rex, the topic of fate is treated thoroughly among its characters, specifically as related to the protagonist, Oedipus. Oedipus, when attempting to solve the mystery of King Laius’ death in order to resolve the plague of Thebes, found out the truth about his own fate, which was to commit patricide and fall into an incestuous relationship with

In Sophocles’, Oedipus the King, fate and free will are two prominent themes presented. Often times the main character in a story is given a predetermined fate from the moment they are born, and feels inclined to live up to it or avoid it- taking away their free will. Immediately, Oedipus’ fate is decided by the Gods, but there is also an aspect of free will. Throughout the whole play, we see how Oedipus decides on how he wants to approach his fate decided by the Gods. One may argue that there was no free will in mythology and just fate, but in Oedipus, we see aspects of both themes.

In Greek tragedy, fate is a reality outside the individual that shapes and determines human life. In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, the characters often attribute the origin of events in their lives to different causes, such as the wish of the gods expressed by the oracles. In Sophocles’ Greek tragedies, Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus had tried to influence his fate many times. However, every try was unsuccessful and overtime Oedipus started to accept his fate. Another character affected by fate in Sophocles’ tragedies, Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus, was Creon.

In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, the theme of fate versus free will appears often throughout the play. It is prophesied to Oedipus’s parents, that their son would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. “Their attempt to assert their free will is foiled when fate intervenes, in the form of the “good will” of a Shepherd who spares the infant’s life”(McHough4). The parents try to get rid of the son but fate doesn’t allow this to happen. Oedipus’ fate throughout the play has been decided by the prophecy, which contributes to his destruction. , Oedipus’s fate is not complete before the beginning of the play (134). Apollo is aware Oedipus is guilty of killing his father so when Apollo asks for Laius’s killer to be found, Oedipus will find

Individuals love power. Being in control of their lives makes them feel superior over others as they are free to make any decisions they desire. Consequently, when fate intervenes, the free will of individuals is comprised, making it difficult for them to accept the reality in which they are no longer in charge of the choices they want to make. Their future has been predetermined resulting in specific actions being hard to comply with. This is the case, in Sophocles “Oedipus the King”, as the instances of consequences are demonstrated when Oedipus marries his mother and kills his father, supporting the fact that fate has strength to fulfill any decree from the Gods. The prophecy of Oedipus, is a prediction of one’s future which ultimately becomes

The problem of the fate has always been exciting and mysterious. Fate is linking with problems such as the purpose and meaning of life, death and immortality. Thus, the idea of ​​the fate is intertwined into a single node all of the burning questions a human is trying to find answers from immemorial times. On the one hand, the fate is a universal category, serving as a universal context of human relationships with the world, but on the other hand, the destiny of each person is individual and unique. However, the concept of fate reflected to two opposite ideas: fatalism and faith in humans' ability to influence their destiny. Is a human an object of influence of the fate, or a creator of his life and future? The religious point of view states that the fate is stronger than an

What is fate? Fate is the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. Fate for Sophocles is less about the external human being but something ingrained in them and transcendent. Prophets and higher stature characters in this play show the will of the gods and indicate future events, but the individual is the one who gives substance to the prophecies. There is an element of freedom granted to human beings, an ability to choose if the gods are powerless. A fatalistic world view, seeking in the non-human forces may be irrational and often an unhealthy force. The two views in this story, the first being negative and the second, having a fatalistic view of life. Having a fatalistic view of life

meaning. In his play Sophocles uses fate as a major part of it as he tells a