Free Will In Sophocles Oedipus Rex

Oedipus’s pride can be seen when he learned from the oracle of delphi. That he will kill his father and marry his mother. He runs in a desperate attempt to defy fate and the gods, but nobody can just run from their fate. As the story progresses his fate becomes reality when he learns everything towards the end of the play.

Oedipus is born with a mournful fate: a son who would kill his father and later prophecy said that he would also marry his mother. Oedipus’s flaw is a hubris as he is too prideful for his fortune. His downfall is when he realizes that he has completed the prophecies that he thought he has destroyed and gouges his eyes out. His realization is that he unknowingly completed his prophecies. Beowulf is a hero as a warrior because he sacrifices himself to the enemies for safety of others.

Antigone is one of the greatest tragedies ever written by Sophocles. There is a controversial question about this play: Who is the tragic hero? Could it be Antigone or Creon? Even though the play’s name is Antigone, but as I read the story. A sensible and responsible king, Creon, is a tragic hero because of his power madness, self-righteousness, and ruthlessness.

In many Greek tragedies characters are often seen trying to run away from their fate. In the process, they only end up solidifying it. In the case of Oedipus, his fate was that he would kill his father and marry his mother. In an attempt to save himself Laius, Oedipus's father attempted to kill Oedipus. Yet fate stepped in and Oedipus was found and raised by his adopted parents.

A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, is a protagonist character who is relatable, has a fatal flaw, and is ultimately defeated by this fatal flaw. Oedipus 's flaw is impulsiveness. When an oracle warns Oedipus that his fate includes murdering his father and marrying his mother, he follows his impulses to run away from the man and woman who he presumes to be his parents. If he were to ask them about it, the fact that he was adopted would most likely be brought to light. Oedipus, on his way to the city of Thebes, murdered King Laius at the meeting of three roads.

Hamlet: the story of a prince who solely wants to revenge his father’s murder at the hands of his uncle. In the end, Hamlet succeeds in completing his goal, but at the price of his own life immediately following Claudius’ death. Throughout the play there were several points where Hamlet could have killed his uncle without facing immediate repercussions, however, fate intervened and caused Hamlet to delay killing Claudius until the very last second. Fate also had a role in shaping Hamlet’s fatal flaw throughout the play. Because of fate’s interference in his life, Hamlet falls victim to his fatal flaw, his inability to act, thus causing him to delay in killing Claudius, ultimately creating the perfect scenario for fate to right the wrongs of Hamlet’s father through Hamlet’s own death.

Irony is often thought of as entertaining, but it also serves a different purpose. In the play of Sophocles titled Oedipus the King, irony is present in every scene, if not every line. When the protagonist runs away to avoid killing his father and marrying his mother, only to kill his father on the road and go on to marry his mother, it can only be ironic. He is a brave and smart man. He killed four men by himself and outsmarted a Sphinx, and became the great king of the city he rescued from her claws.

Sophocles does not provide background information as it would have been common knowledge. Prior to the opening of Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus has left his home and adoptive parents in Corinth in an attempt to escape a prophecy which declares that Oedipus will murder his father and marry his mother. Not knowing that his true parents are Jocasta and Laius, King and Queen of Thebes, Oedipus makes his way towards their city. Along the way, he kills a man travelling with a group who are later revealed to be Laius and his subjects. Oedipus continues and arrives at the Sphinx who has terrorized Thebes until someone solves her riddle.

From possessing flawed characteristic traits such as ignorance, stubbornness, temper and even excessive pride (hubris), which is evident when Oedipus gets the prophecy from the oracle when he is young that he will one day kill his father and marry his mother, he runs away thinking that he has tricked and outwitted the gods but unknowingly follows the correct path to fulfil the prophecy that was set. Oedipus, in this case, believed that he could get away from running away from a proclaimed prophecy which was a sin at the time, which he already he knew, but let his excessive pride in the way of his thinking. These flawed characteristics and aspects of Oedipus are the very things that led to his demise and overall destruction. If it weren’t for them then he very well could of lead a normal life for much longer perhaps. Though free will by itself didn’t cause all of this destruction, in hand with fate, Oedipus’s own choices helped him uncover his horrific deeds and put into play the devastating prophecies that were

Agamemnon is the complete opposite to Hamlet’s character as he murders Clytemnestra’s husband to marry her,

While he is escaping his fate he runs into his real father Laius, who he does not know is his real father, and kills him. He arrives at Thebes where his birth mother lives and ends up marrying her, also believing it was just a random women. The Oracle predicted all of these things to happen, while Oedipus thought he was winning, he never knew he was actually fulfilling his destiny. As he gathered more information about the truth, he uncovers that he did in fact marry his mother and kill his father. Disgusted with himself, he gauges his eyeballs out and exiles himself from Thebes, and his hometown, Corinth.

At the beginning of the play we see Oedipus as a hero among the people, as he solved the Sphinx’ riddle and made it is fateful quest to find and punish the murderer of

In the play the tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, is mainly based on the assassination of Julius Caesar. The main conspirator, ironically, Marcus Brutus, a close friend and ally to Caesar. The character Marcus Brutus fits the description of a tragic hero. Like other tragic heroes, he portrays idealistic and pragmatic qualities. Brutus appears to be the most complicated character.

Oedipus was told his prophecy. With this being Oedipus prophecy he chooses sacrificing his happiness in order to keep his parents safe from danger. In both stories Hamlet and Oedipus were both fated by gods or supernatural beings, there lives can be seen as predetermined. Oedipus was meant to be a prophecy in which he was doomed to kill his father and marry his mother.

Oedipus, the tragic hero of Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, has a flaw that causes his downfall. Aristotle, in his Poetics, says that “Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but of action and life, of happiness and misery” (135). This tragic flaw is what causes Oedipus’ fate to hurt him and is why he loses everything. Oedipus’ tragic flaw is his blindness, which is seen in the play when he argues with the blind seer Teiresias, when he ignores the messenger from Corinth, and when he does not connect the evidence from Iokaste.