What Role Does Fate Play In Oedipus The King

In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, the themes of fate and agency are very strong throughout the play. Both sides of the argument can be greatly supported.  The attributes of a person have either a positive or negative affect on the choices that they make.  For Oedipus, his main attribute was the desire for knowledge and understanding about his own life. Because of this strong will and desire, this was Oedipus’ driving force in the play to lead him to the truth of his beginnings.  His agency is based on his drive for knowledge.

Oedipus’ tragedy as a result of his freely made decisions Are people truly responsible for their actions or they are just puppets in hand of Gods or people and executors of the fate that is pre-recorded? The question of determinism towards free will has occupied humankind almost over the centuries. Usually fate is defined as something that unavoidably befalls the individuals and influence their decisions and actions. In ancient Greece the religion played important role in everyday-life of the Greeks. The concept of fate had the prominent place in the Greek religion.

One major theme in Oedipus is fate vs. freewill. Through this story, Sophacoles shows his opinion on this conflict. Sophacoles opinion is that the choices you make through free will lead you to your fate. He beleives fate is something you cannot avoid.

Oedipus: Significant or Uninformed? By: Jonathan Hayman Do people really know themselves? This is a question that people ask themselves all the time, and can be a question brought up in your day’s worth of thinking. In the playwright entitled “Oedipus The King” by Sophocles, Oedipus is the main character in the play. He is the classic example of a man whose central problem is that he does not know himself.

Harmony in Oedipus the King In Oedipus the King, penned by Sophocles, an underlying theme throughout the tragedy is that a person 's fate and a person 's free will both influence his or her life. The article “fate” recorded in Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature claims that Oedipus ' “...Foreknowledge…” in the play, “...makes him act irrationally to fulfill his destiny” (Langis n.pag.). When Oedipus tries to escape his fate by departing from Corinth, he runs toward it instead. Oedipus’ predetermined course would become legitimate and neither he nor any other individual could change it.

Sophocles was one of the greatest playwrights of antiquity, and this of course is not without reason. In his play Oedipus Rex, Sophocles uses a catastrophic tale to both teach and tell us that no matter what we do, our fate cannot be avoided. Oedipus is the wisest mortal man in Thebes, so it is up to him to find out who killed Laios, a fact unknown to him though, is that he is the murderer of the ex-king Laios. Both his hot temper and the endless pursuit of truth will lead Oedipus into a sticky situation. In order to find the killer of the old king and save his city, Oedipus will learn things about himself he wishes he never had, and in the process fulfill an old prophecy.

From the beginning Oedipus was destined to fulfill a terrible prophecy, but through particular events that follow the steps of the Hero’s Journey, Oedipus becomes a powerful king of Thebes, only to be destroyed by the prophecy that should have ended his life as a child. The Hero’s Journey typically leads to self-confidence and power, however; the Hero’s Journey of Oedipus leads to his tragic demise. The Hero’s Journey lays out the steps of Oedipus’s future actions, which create suspense, fear, pity, and other emotions that captivates the audience. Similar to many famous stories, Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles in 430 B.C., follows the Hero’s Journey path, which is evident in Oedipus’s departure, initiation, and return.

As the play unfolds, we see Oedipus’ virtues and weaknesses lead him to his own demise. Unfortunately, the audience can see Oedipus fate being sealed before he can see it himself. This has been provided through Sophocles use of foreshadowing. Oedipus ' sense of responsibility for his city-state drives his search for the truth, the truth that ultimately destroys him. One can say Oedipus is solely at hand for his downfall by the actions he pursues, however one can also note that if the secret of the god’s oracle was not kept hidden, his own end would have never reached fruition.

It is often said that pride comes before a down fall, but pride must first trip over the truth The downfall of Oedipus is due to flaws in his character. Throughout the play “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, Oedipus’s character has led him to make judgements that were not in his best interest. These flaws are pride, leading to overconfidence and having poor judgement. Oedipus character also show determination which throughout the play also became a flaw as well. The character of Oedipus is ruled by fate.

The conversation of fate vs. free will comes up a lot. Especially in Oedipus Rex. This whole story is based on controversial theories on this topic. This story has a bunch of different situation in which this theory can come up. However, what this story does not clearly state can be found in between the lines. Fate and free will co-exist with each other in life and in the story.

Thematic Essay Almost all humans believe in either two things: there is an exact set plan for everyone or that they decide exactly what they do with their lives. Many people swear by the fact of fate, others just think it to be a myth, some think they can take whatever path in life they want, and some believe in the aspect of fate and believe they can escape it. Oedipus and his parents from Sophocles, Oedipus the King, are not any different from many humans in that they try to escape fate. When Oedipus is born, his parents send him away to be killed trying to escape their fate; the prophecy they were given.

In the novel Oedipus the king,what Sophocles strives to reveal to us about his society is that although the truth can often hurt, knowledge to the greeks was very important to them because they were a people who needed to be informed about everything. In Sophocles time gods were revered more than anything, and because of how powerful these divine beings were it was not in any human's control to question them since they could not confront these all divine beings who controlled their fate and actions. Throughout the novel Sophocles intentions are to show the readers the concept of sight and blindness as well as the idea of fate and freewill, greek plays in these ancient times were designed to incorporate throughout the story dramatic irony which a theme that revolves around the story..

Oedipus, the main character of the play, is a king with ideal tragic hero traits in his personality, but his downfall is due to flaws in his moral decisions. That makes the reader have the tragic hero feeling at the end of the play when all the good of Oedipus is muddled in his fight against his evilness. Oedipus’ parents had to throw him away the day he was born, because it was foretold that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He was pitied by the shepherd who was supposed to leave him in the mountains of Cithaeron. Instead of dying, and “out of pity for the baby” the shepherd gave him to the shepherd of King Polybus (Sophocles).

In ancient Greek society, the tragedy was a deeply spiritual and emotional art form integral to daily life. Perhaps one of the best examples of Greek tragedy is Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. The work is distinguished by the deep emotion and thought it elicits from the reader. This is in part due to Sophocles’ expert portrayal of Oedipus, who bears all the attributes of an Aristotelian tragic hero. A once powerful king turned blinded pariah, Oedipus is characterized by both his pride and his honorable character. Through such characterization, Sophocles heightens the emotions in the play by demonstrating how these traits contribute to the catastrophic conclusion. Sophocles deliberately depicts Oedipus as a seemingly infallible yet prideful ruler in order to augment the subsequent devastation Oedipus causes, thus realizing the vision of an Aristotelian tragedy.

The plot is thoroughly integrated with the characterization of Oedipus, for it is he who impels the action forward in his concern for Thebes, his personal rashness, and his ignorance of his past. His flaws are a hot temper and impulsiveness, but without those traits his heroic course of self-discovery would never occur. Fate for Sophocles is not something essentially external to human beings but