Who Is Freewill In Oedipus The King

Words: 477
Pages: 2
Open Document
A Feather Can Not Outweigh an Elephant

Widows who weave the strands of fate, forever bounding you in the fabric of time and space. A single strand that mustn't be disturbed in the slightest, without the entirety falling apart. The Fates, they are said to plan out your entire life onto the fragilest of strings each string varying at different lengths for different lives. Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, questions how human life is affected by fate and free will. Oedipus was told by the Oracle that he was to marry his mother and kill his father. Unaware that, by running from his presumed parents, he would be forever sealing his fate and prophecy. All of Oedipus decisions were intermingled with fate, whenever Oedipus would make a decision it simply aligned with his destiny. What Oedipus perceived as free will was already predetermined by the Fates. It was Oedipus’s free will that brought him to the oracle and his decision to run away, but by following his choices he fulfilled his fate which ultimately led to his tragic downfall. …show more content…
Choosing to visit the oracle, Killing a man on the way to Thebes, accepting the Throne and marrying Jocasta, are believed to all be decisions of free will, which led to his downfall. However these would prove to be false. These decisions would be worthless, because the day he was born his fate was decreed and unchangeable. Oedipus’s free will could have chosen many paths but all would have ended in the same location, that of his fate. Oedipus tries to change his fate but only manages to cement it with these choices he makes. Oedipus does not choose to marry his mother, the marriage was predetermined and unavoidable no matter how hard he
Show More

Related Documents: Who Is Freewill In Oedipus The King

A True Tragic Hero Essay

the best tragedy ever written, Sophocle’s Oedipus the King. According to Aristotle, a tragedy should amount to the hero’s good deeds and power, a tragic flaw where the hero makes destructive errors in judgment which soon leads to his downfall, which is a tragic realization in which Oedipus understands how he has unknowingly helped to bring about his own downfall and the absence of freewill in the tragic hero’s destined life. Oedipus was a great ruler who possessed compassion and sympathy. When the…

Words 1443 - Pages 6

The Guilt Complex Essay

or another. The idea that fate, rather than freewill, controls the lives of humans is another (hotly debated) universal, and the most timeless story is one which absorbs the universals of the human experience, and seeks to examine and explain them. It is at this junction that Oedipus Rex, a play written by Sophocles and set in Thebes, is found. The characters within struggle against, and ultimately fail to prevent, a prophecy which proclaims that Oedipus will be his father’s killer and his mother’s…

Words 948 - Pages 4

The Power Of Free Will In Oedipus The King

communication). In the story Oedipus, his fate was already planned by the gods and he couldn't do anything. The Gods knew what would happen but Oedipus tried hard not to let things play out that way. Some believe that fate is choosen for you and other doesnt. In some ways fate could never be changed or controlled for them but in others mind it is just all a belief. Some say that god can be the only person that controls your fate. According to Emanuel ” Fate and Freewill are like Yin and Yang, not…

Words 677 - Pages 3

Oedipus Rex Fate Vs Free Will

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex was written during the Greek era, at which time, it was a strong belief of the Greeks that one’s life was fated by the gods. Thus, the Greeks assumed that fate denied one’s use of free will. However, there were those who doubted the authority of the gods, and therefore the relevance of fate in their lives. In answer to this, Sophocles, a true believer in Greek lore, composed Oedipus Rex to present the helplessness of humanity when confronted by the gods through Oedipus, the tragic…

Words 1365 - Pages 6