Oedipus Rex Fate Vs Free Will Essay
“Using Jocasta's brooches, Oedipus gouges out his eyes, screaming, "You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!" ("Oedipus the King: Top Ten Quotes").
Did Oedipus create his own fate while trying to avoid his fate that was told to him by the Oracle? Or, did the gods will his fate? This is question has plagued the human race for years and we still haven’t come closer to an answer. In Oedipus Rex, it’s a little bit of both, Oedipus’s fate is already determined, however, he makes decisions that ultimately make his fate turn sour. In order to answer this mind
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Free will, what is it? There are many different definitions and ideas out there, to be on the same page, I am going to use this definition of free will: Free Will, power or ability of the human mind to choose a course of action or make a decision without being subject to restraints imposed by antecedent causes, by necessity, or by divine predetermination. A completely freewill act is itself a cause and not an effect; it is beyond causal sequence or the law of causality. The question of human beings’ ability to determine their actions is important in philosophy, particularly in metaphysics and ethics, and in theology. Generally, the extreme doctrine in which freedom of the will is affirmed is termed libertarianism; its opposite, determinism, is the doctrine that human action is not willed freely, but is rather the result of such influences as passions, desires, physical conditions, and external circumstances beyond the control of the individual. ("Free Will." Funk & Wagnalls New World
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