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Fate In Oedipus The King

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Sophocles shows how fate is truly inescapable in his story, “Oedipus the King”. Fate is something people truly cannot avoid and will catch up with them eventually. All the precautions someone can take as to stop what fate has destined for them will fail in the end. The story of “Oedipus the King” is a prime example of this. Oedipus is a man who was avoiding what fate intended for him ended up walking right into it. Oedipus is a man who couldn’t avoid fate and helped his own prophecy of murder and incest come true unknowingly. Fate is unmovable and the story of “Oedipus the King” clearly shows that. To begin with, the prophecy that was told to Oedipus and his real parents was given by prophets and Apollo himself. Apollo, while being the god of light is also the god of prophecy and truth, a prophecy given by a god is seemingly set in stone. Walton says, “As the god of prophecy, Apollo already knows the outline of the feature… It is no fault of Apollo that Oedipus tries to avoid what Apollo tells him is going to happen, at every stage making things worse” (no page). It was for nothing that Oedipus and his parents thought they could go …show more content…

In the end, they all realize they could have never changed their fate. Oedipus’s belief in that he had free will and that he could stop the prophecy from coming true ended up being a guideline for fate to get the prophecy to start. McHugh says, “Oedipus, driven by what he believes to be his free will, compulsively continues his search for the murderer despite the warnings he receives.” (no page) Oedipus’s pride also was a factor in his tragic end along with him believing he had free will. He ignored the signs of what was true, he was warned by a prophet and even Jocasta foreshadowed this when she begs him to stop his search. It ended in Jocasta hanging herself from figuring out that Oedipus is her son and she was in an incestuous marriage with her husband’s murderer. Oedipus blinds himself as punishment and has Cronus banish

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