Does Oedipus Deserve The Inevitability Of Fate

Fate is a common theme in Greek tragedies like Oedipus the King or the Oresteia. A common debate surrounding fate is whether a person is to blame for their actions if they were fated to do them. The answer is they deserve blame and responsibility for their choices. In Sophocles’s Oedipus the King, Oedipus deserves the blame for killing his father because while fate is predetermined, his choices lead him to fulfill it because he killed a random person and married an older woman. In Aeschylus’s the Oresteia, Cassandra prophesied Clytemnestra would kill her and Agamemnon, but it was still Clytemnestra’s choice to kill them.

A great example of the inevitability of fate is Oedipus the King. In this play, Oedipus is fated to kill his father and

While marrying an older woman isn’t immoral like slaughtering a group of men, he chose to do it. Oedipus knew from his prophecy that he was fated to marry his own mother. Despite having this knowledge, Oedipus wed a woman significantly older than him. If Oedipus really didn’t want to marry his mother, he could have played it safe and married a woman younger or only a few years older than him. However, his decision here wasn’t wrong like the one before. Oedipus ignored common sense but marrying someone and having a happy relationship with them isn’t wrong. Oedipus and Jocasta had a happy, stable marriage which is rare for a Greek tragedy. This happiness makes the later revelation even more unsettling because it destroys a family. “My poor child! Those are the only words I shall ever have for you… I can speak no others” (Sophocles 227). This quote from Jocasta is her trying to persuade Oedipus to not look into his birth. “My poor child” interprets as Jocasta expressing pity and sympathy for Oedipus and also that she is his mother because at this point Jocasta has learned the truth. Jocasta didn’t want Oedipus to look into his birth because she truly loved him despite abandoning him years before. Oedipus doesn’t heed her warning and finds out for himself. However, this is Oedipus’s fault. Fate is a prediction of what someone is going to do and it cannot change. This doesn’t mean one is not responsible for

Cassandra predicted Clytemnestra would murder her and Agamemnon and was correct. A prediction from an oracle is the same thing as fate. Cassandra knew it was fate that Clytemnestra would commit her murders. “If you say man then you don’t understand” (Aeschylus 36). This quote comes from Cassandra delivering her prophecy about Clytemnestra’s murders. It reveals that not a man but a woman will murder Agamemnon. Clytemnestra is clearly fated to kill Agamemnon. Even though it was fate, Clytemnestra chose to kill him and Cassandra. A crime being fated doesn’t make one innocent or absolve one from accountability. This is a more simple example of one’s choices being their fault as Clytemnestra acted with intent and wanted to kill Agamemnon and an innocent Cassandra. The fundamental difference between this and the story of Oedipus is Oedipus did not intend to fulfill his prophecy and his efforts to avoid it are what ultimately led to it coming to fruition. This doesn’t mean Oedipus isn’t responsible for his actions. When a prophecy like the one that was given to Oedipus is placed on someone, it’s their burden to avoid it. If Oedipus acted carefully and didn’t marry an older woman or murder people, the prophecy would have never come about. But if the fates knew Oedipus would act smartly to avoid the prophecy, it would have never been given. Oedipus was given this prophecy because the fates knew he would act irresponsibly and