Theme Of Fate In Oedipus The King

Over the centuries, the concept of fate is constantly being changed to adapt to our current way of living. In modern times the concept of fate is usually connected to the themes of love and romance. However the ancient Greeks recognized fate as an inescapable reality that shaped their lives. The famous playwright, Sophocles, adopts the idea of fate in his plays to control the character’s actions. In both plays, “Oedipus the King” and “Antigone”, the writer uses the concept of fate to show human’s inability to conquer the will of the gods.

“Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.” In other words, the connotation of this anonymous quote states that despite whatever one chooses to decide, the outcome of their choices and decisions will still result to their predetermined fate. Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, demonstrates this statement throughout the play in the role of his tragic hero Oedipus. In the course of Oedipus’ actions of trying to escape his predestined fortune, his fate and flaws of being human played major roles to bring about his downfall.

In Oedipus the King, one of Sophocles’ most popular plays, Sophocles clearly depicts the Greek’s popular belief that fate will control a man’s life despite of man’s free will. Man was free to choose and was ultimately held responsible for his own actions. Throughout Oedipus the King, the concept of fate and free will plays an integral part in Oedipus' destruction.

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

Oedipus’s parents, Jocasta and Laius, were told by the gods that their son, Oedipus, would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother, a terrible fate. In the play, Jocasta tells of a prophecy given to

His fate was learned by his father Laius and mother Jocasta so they binded Oedipus’s feet and left him stranded to die. He was then taken in by an adoptive family and raised till manhood. Once older, Oedipus learned his fate, he left his home thinking that his adoptive parents were his original parents. Oedipus followed his fate, but it was pushed by smaller freewill decisions. When he first arrived to Thebes, he was encountered by a traveling caravan that engaged in a road rage in which Oedipus ends up killing Laius not knowing that Laius is his father.

When Oedipus is born, his parents are told by a prophet that Oedipus would kill his father. To attempt to escape this fate, Oedipus’ parents give him to a shepherd to be killed. This plan fails because of the shepherd’s kindness, and Oedipus lives. As Oedipus comes of age, he hears of the prophecy of how he will kill his father. Alarmed, he runs away from his, unknowingly adoptive, father, trying to escape fate.

Large-scale questions of such ideas are raised in Sophocles’ play, “Oedipus the King”—a story that deals with the tragic hero, Oedipus, and his demise. Oedipus progresses through the play struggling against his own wicked destiny: the prophecy that declares that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Ultimately, Oedipus fulfills this prophecy; in fact, he had completed his fate without his own knowing and before the play even begins. Despite his belief that he was fighting against his prophesized destiny, Oedipus was ironically fulfilling it, and he slowly brings about his own downfall. He becomes a victim of his own fate. In this regard, “Oedipus the King” explores a terrifying concept: Oedipus never had free will—a puppet in every sense to the higher beings that decided his ending for him.

After receiving knowledge of the prophecy, Oedipus flees from who he believes to be his parents. By attempting to avoid his foretold fate, he sets himself upon a path that ends with him murdering Laius and being wed to Jocasta; thus bringing about the realization of the prophecy. Oedipus recalls that, “ [Apollo] foretold … that I was fated to lie with my mother, and show to daylight an accursed breed which men would not endure, and I was doomed to be murdered of the father that begot me.” Oedipus flees, apparently believing that his mortal feet could carry him to where a god’s prophecy cannot touch him. In attempt to interrupt his fate, Oedipus flees from the man and woman he believes to be his parents, “ When I heard this I fled, and in the days that followed I would measure from the stars the whereabouts of Corinth-yes, I fled to somewhere where I should not see fulfilled the infamies told in that dreadful oracle.”

The play, Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, one of the ancient Greek tragedians, examines fate and justice determined by a higher power over random chance due to: fate taking Oedipus in the same path even after attempts of prevention during his childhood, fate causing the future to remain a secret even when talking to Teiresias, and justice causing the death of both his parents for their crimes. In further explanation, even after Laius, the father of Oedipus, attempts to murder his son and after leaving him isolated on a hillside which later separates Oedipus from his biological parents, fate still takes Oedipus in the path that was told. Jocasta says, "And for the son-before three days were out after his birth King Laius pierced his ankles and by the

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

Throughout Oedipus the King, the concept of fate and free will plays an essential part in Oedipus’ destruction. This story describes the suffering of Oedipus as a result of a misfortune of which he has no control over. Oedipus is a play that demonstrates how a person’s life can either be destined to take a certain path or be based on the decisions a person makes throughout their life. There are no oracles or prophecies that can determine how an individual’s life turns out to be, but according to Sophocles the gods cursed Oedipus even before he was born. This is a tragic event of a conflict between the powerful gods, his blindness, a man’s inability to change his destiny and his intelligence.

One day someone told Oedipus that he was not a blood son of the Kings of Corinth and this bothered him, so he decided to go to the oracle at Delphi and ask about his blood parents. The oracle told him that he was fated to kill his father and married his mother. Fate plays an important role in this part because here is the beginning of Oedipus tragedy because he tries to avoid the oracles prophecy and he went to Thebes where the tragedy takes place. “Sophocles has provided a conclusive answer to those who suggest that Oedipus could, and therefore should, have avoided his fate. The oracle was unconditional: it did not say ‘If you do so-and-so you will kill your father’; it simply said ‘You will kill your father; you will sleep with your mother.’ And what an oracle predicts is bound to happen. Oedipus does what he can to evade his destiny; he resolves never to see his supposed parents again. But it is quite certain from the first that his best efforts will be unavailing.” (Dodds 69)

Oedipus could be in the situation he is in because he is following a prophecy which is meant for him to follow the path he is on. The people he ran into along his journey were meant to be there because it was his fate. The prophet Tiresias knows the true story of what happened and when Oedipus goes to see him, he begs him to reveal who Laius’s murderer is, but Tiresias answers that he knows but wishes he didn’t. Oedipus get annoyed at the riddles that Tiresias is telling him that he blames him

In the end, however, Oedipus’ hubris ways led to his tragic reality. He lost his wife. He lost his eyesight. He lost his children. He lost his kingship. With all his confidence and his persistence, he uncovered the riddles of his life and found out that he was the boy born of Laius and Jocasta who was the subject of the prophecy. His intelligence, pride and confidence led to this discovery, which resulted in him losing everything that he had which in the end he fulfilled his fate.