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Comparing Free Will In Oedipus The King And Job In The Hebrew Bible

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Both Oedipus in Oedipus the king and Job in the Hebrew Bible are faced with a test of critical decision-making, associated with divine struggle. Both the story of Job and Oedipus are faced with the divine controversy of fate and divine will. In both cases, the two characters are faced with the temptation of exercising their free will in the struggle for grace, power, and happiness. Fate refers to that which has been pre-determined by supernatural powers hence human subjects have no control over it. In contrast, free will entails the capacity that one has in choosing between the various courses of action available to them. Fate refers to that which has been pre-determined by supernatural powers hence human subjects have no control over it. In …show more content…

The fall of Oedipus is a result of fate predestined by the gods and spoken by the oracle. Oedipus' actions are a fulfillment of the foreshadowing through two prophecies that Sophocles outlines earlier in the play. Before his birth, Oedipus had no power of choice as he could not dictate who his parents would be or whom he would marry when he came of age. However, his father, King Laius receives a prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi that he would have a son with Queen Jocasta (Puchner 397). Therefore, it is worth arguing that the birth and life of Oedipus had a divine course foretold before his …show more content…

Notably, Oedipus and his family are aware of his predestined fate while Job is acting in faith. Hence, it is worth arguing that free will plays a vital role in the fall of Oedipus as depicted by his actions, and the decisions of his parents. For instance, after the oracle came to Laius that he would die at the hands of his son, he decides to abandon him thinking that this would prevent the fulfillment of the oracle (Puchner 399). The decision by the king is an example of free will as the king decides out of the free will to alter the future. Besides, queen Jocasta's free will aims at preventing Oedipus from discovering who he is in an attempt to prevent fate. Also, Oedipus' fall from happiness caused by the pain of his mother's decision to hang herself can be attributed to free will since the play does not give a prophecy from the oracle about her death. Therefore, some of the things that lead to the fall of Oedipus such as the death of his mother could be prevented by free

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Oedipus was cursed when he was a baby and found out his destiny when the god Apollo showed him a vision saying “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see- you will kill your father, the one who gave you life!” (Sophocles 873-875) However, Oedipus did not know that the ones who found him and raised him as his son were not his parents. After the prophecy, Oedipus decided to run away to try to change his fate even though it was already set to kill his father and sleep with his mother, unfortunately he couldn’t do anything about it. “Its mine alone, my destiny-I am Oedipus!”

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Oedipus fails to overcome the fate that has been set out for him by the gods. Though the case was different for him, as unlike Hamlet, Oedipus really couldn’t have done anything to avoid his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother. He believed that his real parents were in Corinth and the best way to avoid his fate was to flee the city. Unfortunately for Oedipus, what he had not known was that he was adopted, and his real parents lived in Thebes, the city he fled to. It was nearly impossible for him to have avoided his fate.

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A main theme throughout The Odyssey is the idea of fate vs. free will, which is also largely consistent throughout Oedipus Rex. However, instead of exclusively exploring the involvement of both fate and free will in the human condition, Sophocles analyzes the limits of human free will and the consequences of ignoring or attempting to avoid fate. Throughout the play, we see both Oedipus and his parents constantly running from their fate. They make almost every possible move to avoid their inevitable fate. Through this presentation of free will, Sophocles suggests that although humans have the independence to make their own choices, these choices will ultimately result in whatever condition they were predestined to encounter.

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Fate and Free will in Oedipus Rex In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Oedipus is trying to figure out how to stop the plague in Thebes. He is also trying to figure out who killed King Laius. This is the man that Oedipus took over for as the new king. Creon tells Oedipus that King Laius’ murderer is in the city and once the man is out of the city that will end the plague.

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The king accuses others for the cause of the previous kings death with the only intent to have the people favor him for avenging his death, but his fate reveals the truth. The play Oedipus The King by Nicholas Rudall explores fate versus free will in order to demonstrate the fact that some events in life cannot be controlled while others can be. This is shown through Oedipus living out his prophecy, or fate, by killing his father,

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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.

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Oedipus was given this prophecy because the fates knew he would act irresponsibly and

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And fate controlled his actions. And the way he behaves that is because he is cursed. His knowing of the curse leads him to run and escape from it in hope to defeat it. Because going through the text we could notice that one on the main themes is blindness. Blindness is mentioned as a sign for the curse, and it might lead to his irrationality, when Tiresias said to Oedipus “you are blind to the corruption of your life” .

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Since the earliest of times, there has always been debate over the concepts of fate and free will. The most frequent dispute is whether or not man truly has free will, or if fate is the ultimate determinant of how one's life will turn out. One play that depicts this concept is Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. In this tragedy, Oedipus receives a prophecy that he would bed his mother and murder his father. After learning of this prophecy, Oedipus attempts to undo fate and utilize his free will to escape what would be his destiny.

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