In the play “Oedipus Rex” the main character, Oedipus, has to deal with his predetermined fate and his own nature. He is cursed from the beginning of his life when a soothsayer tells of his fate upon his birth. It is predicted that he will kill his father, and marry his mother, and raise a family. Oedipus was born to Laios and Iocaste who were the king and queen of Thebes. Upon his birth, his parents were shocked at a soothsayer’s prediction of Oedipus’s fate. It was originally said that he would kill his father, marry his mother, and raise a family.
Naturally his parents couldn’t have this, so they rid themselves of Oedipus by apparently killing him. They gave him to a shepard and told him to take him away, and kill him. The shepard couldn’t go through with killing his, so instead he gave him to another shepard and told him to get rid of Oedipus. This shepard couldn’t kill the baby either so he heard of a king and queen in Corinth Poly bos and Me rope who were trying to have a son to inherit their throne. He gave them young Oedipus, and he later inherited the throne of Corinth. As Oedipus grew up he eventually heard of his fate from an outsider.
Oedipus, being the kind-hearted person he was, didn’t want to hurt his parents in any way. So he ran away from home hoping that this would end his predetermined fate, but this only made things worse. While he was on his way he ran into a man on the road that was his true father Laios. Oedipus and Laios had a fight about who had the right of way on the road. Oedipus killed Laios and his men during the fight thus fulfilling the first part of his supposed fate. Oedipus would carry on and eventually end up in Thebes where he was originally born.
The Essay on Oedipus Fate Vs Free Will
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. Destined to marry his mother and ...
Oedipus would go on to marry his mother Iocaste, and be looked at as a hero to the community. This would in fact fulfill the second part of Oedipus’s fate. Oedipus would carry on his life in Thebes and have a family with his new wife, Iocaste, who is also his mother. Throughout all of this Oedipus never had the slightest clue he was angering the gods by committing the crimes of patricide, regicide, and incest.
The gods placed a plague on the city of Thebes and said that only the plague would be lifted if the killer of the king Laios were brought to justice. At the time still no one knew that Oedipus had killed the king or that he was the son of his wife. Oedipus would carry on a vigorous search for the killer of Laios, although he would be very successful because the person he was looking for was himself. In the end Oedipus would finally find out it was himself he was looking for. When his wife committed suicide, after realizing it was actually Oedipus who she had married, the soothsayer was trying to explain whom the killer of Laios actually was.
Oedipus never had control over his fate because it was all predetermined in the telling of the soothsayer at the beginning of his life. Oedipus had no clue that it was his father he was killing when he killed Laios, nor did he have any knowledge that it was actually his mother he was marrying when he married Iocaste. Due to his predetermined fate he experienced many problems throughout his life that were all beyond his control.
