Oedipus Rex: A Victim Of Fate Or His Own Will?
Q : Oedipus Rex –A Victim of Fate or his Own Will ?
The play Oedipus by Sophocles is a play whose focus is the interplay between fate and free will. The story basically goes like this: Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother as he learned from the Oracle at Delphi. So, Oedipus does everything to escape-he runs from his own land and starts his life over. However, Oedipus is a character that clearly demonstrates that no matter how much free will men assert, fate has already written the events of one 's life.
Oedipus himself does everything to avoid the various prophecies made about him, but in the end, is a victim of fate.
The first example of fate is that Oedipus sends Creon to the temple of Apollo to find out how to get rid of the plague of Thebes. This is how he learns of his own fate as well. "I sent Meoceus son of Creon , Jocasta 's brother, to Apollo, that he might learn there by what act or word I could save this city" (70-74). Creon then sends for Tiresius. Against his will and after much discussion, he reveals the fate of Oedipus. He tells …show more content…
Oedipus is clearly shown his own fate, not that he believes it. After he learns this he takes his own journey and learns the same thing. Oedipus himself took a trip to the Oracle of Delphi without his foster parents, Polybus and Merope, knowing about it. What he found out was that there was a dreadful future for him So, he runs away from Corinth so that this prophecy can never come true, thus trying to run from his own fate. "When I heard this, 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" (792-793). He feels at this point that he should be safe from the fate of the oracle, but he is
The play Oedipus by Sophocles is a play whose focus is the interplay between fate and free will. The story basically goes like this: Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother as he learned from the Oracle at Delphi. So, Oedipus does everything to escape-he runs from his own land and starts his life over. However, Oedipus is a character that clearly demonstrates that no matter how much free will men assert, fate has already written the events of one 's life.
Oedipus himself does everything to avoid the various prophecies made about him, but in the end, is a victim of fate.
The first example of fate is that Oedipus sends Creon to the temple of Apollo to find out how to get rid of the plague of Thebes. This is how he learns of his own fate as well. "I sent Meoceus son of Creon , Jocasta 's brother, to Apollo, that he might learn there by what act or word I could save this city" (70-74). Creon then sends for Tiresius. Against his will and after much discussion, he reveals the fate of Oedipus. He tells …show more content…
Oedipus is clearly shown his own fate, not that he believes it. After he learns this he takes his own journey and learns the same thing. Oedipus himself took a trip to the Oracle of Delphi without his foster parents, Polybus and Merope, knowing about it. What he found out was that there was a dreadful future for him So, he runs away from Corinth so that this prophecy can never come true, thus trying to run from his own fate. "When I heard this, 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" (792-793). He feels at this point that he should be safe from the fate of the oracle, but he is