The Importance Of Fate In Oedipus The King

"’Wicked, wicked eyes!’ he gasps, ‘you shall not see me nor my crime, not see my present shame. Go dark for all time blind to what you never should have seen, and blind to the love this heart has cried to see’" (70). Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King is said to be one of the greatest tragedies in literature. The act revolves around Oedipus Rex, a man who is fated for an incestuous relationship with his mother, Jocasta and parricide of his father, Laius, and unwittingly fulfils it. Upon discovering this truth, Jocasta commits suicide while Oedipus gouges out his eyes and banishes himself. However, it is the reason behind his downfall which is often debated. Because Oedipus commits murder of the very man that gave him birth, and was victim of incest with his own mother, both being sinful acts he was driven to commit, it is clear that

His corrupted fate was brought upon by Apollo, the god of prophecy who had warned him of his sinful deeds through the oracle at Delphi. During Jocasta and Oedipus’ talk of their past actions, Oedipus recounts with worry, “Apollo--never hinting what I came to hear--packs me home again, my ears ringing with some other things he blurted out; horrible disgusting things: How mating with my mother I must spawn a progeny to make men shudder, having been my father’s murderer” (44). Here Oedipus reveals to his wife, the disturbing words of Apollo describing the abhorrent outcomes of his fate, one being parricide. After hearing such awful truths of oneself, it is only natural for one to be in disbelief and act impulsively, to travel far away and attempt to escape from them. Oedipus being no different and incapable of accepting this cursed future was driven out of his home, away from who he believed to be his biological parents and unknowingly to his biological father. In his account, he