Fate plays an important role in both Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, and Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel, but each of the main characters’ fates leads them in very different directions. The major difference between the stories Oedipus Rex and Beowulf is that Oedipus runs away and tries to avoid his prophecy, but Beowulf embraces his fate. Oedipus’s fate was that he would kill his father and marry his mother shown by the quote, “Loxias once told me that I must sleep with my own mother and shed paternal blood with my own hands,” (1023 Oedipus). He avoided his prophecy by fleeing from Corinth and living in Thebes, rather than embracing it like Beowulf did.
After Oedipus realizes that he fulfilled his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother, Oedipus declares,”I have been saved for something great and terrible, something strange. Well let destiny come and take me on its way”(323). Then Oedipus gouges out his own eyes so that he cannot look upon his parents in the underworld, his children, or the city he once ruled. He then asks Creon to return him to the place he should have died as a young child, the mountain. The statement reveals that Oedipus fulfilled his fate and that Oedipus truly believes destiny set him on the path of destruction.
Background Information: In Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, Oedipus was told that he would kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. However, Oedipus doesn’t believe that he killed Laius but was blind to the truth for him accept it which led to his demise. 3.Thesis Statement:
Throughout “Oedipus the King”, the idea of fate, destiny and predestination controls most of the play. The play begins with Oedipus on the throne and Thebes being attacked by plague. As a responsible king, he is searching for a cure: “My search has found one way to treat our disease and I have acted already. I have sent Creon my brother-in-law to the prophetic oracle of Apollo to find out what action or speech” (Sophocles). Right at the beginning of the play, author has shown his bias by giving Oedipus that line.
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.
Oedipus’ real parents, Iocaste and Laois, learned of his prophecy, “marry his own mother, shed his father’s blood with his own hands”
ONCE UPON A TIME, King William, ruled the Kingdom of Burgundy. He wants to become the most powerful leader in the world. Nearby, the Kingdom of Norcross is ruled by Noah and his wife. They have twelve years old twins named Jacob and Amalie. King William expells Noah; he loses everything and their mother becomes ill and dies.
Truly, Oedipus sets out to change his destiny. His self determination proves he has pride in himself and confidence that he can somehow change the future. When Oedipus killed his father he allowed his pride and arrogance to control him. He was thinking with his pride and did not use self control. This hubris that is instilled in Oedipus is a serious flaw of his.
Oedipus was a member of a higher ruling class that tell us about tragic hero the truth behind his birth destroyed him. An old man was brought before Oedipus the king for questioning and the truth was told. When Oedipus was the only child in his family he was sent away from his family because oracle told a prophecy that Oedipus was going to kill his father and marry his mother. When the old man was questioned the old man was not aware that the baby boy who he took care off was Oedipus who was sent away from his house and received him from Laius who was the former king of Thebes now it is known that Oedipus is from a royal family. Oedipus is separated from all the other common people because of his royalty and his terrible future and because Oedipus is from a royal family and he is a natural born leader and has a higher status than other common people that makes him special and that gives him heights powers and his terrible future keeps him completely apart from others.
Oedipus’s wrongdoings were caused by his actions but fate plays a role in controlling his life. A person might ask what is fate? Fate is the story of your life written with ink so it could not be changed, so free will does not exist because everything a person does is destined to be their fate. For Oedipus the king, his fate was more like hell on earth. Even before he was born the prophecies that were sent for his parents about him were not so good.
Greek tragedies are known for their fateful plots and calamitous endings. Sophocles delivers such a dramatic play with his tragedy Oedipus Rex. Oedipus is a tragic hero with unusual origins. His actual origins are unknown to him at first, but when all is revealed, his tale ends in an inevitably tragic resolution. A prophecy that cannot be ignored or altered, no matter how much Oedipus tries, tells a twisted tale of Oedipus’ actions, and its fulfillment reveals Oedipus’ crooked relations with his mother and father.
In many people’s eyes, it is seen that fate is something that one can not escape. In Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, Oedipus gives a speech to the citizens of Thebes, about the murder of their previous leader, Laius. And in this speech, he explains the hardship that the murderer will have to eventually face. In Oedipus’s speech from Oedipus Rex, Sophocles uses the literary device of dramatic irony to develop the central idea that fate is destined to happen, and can possibly bring more intensified consequences when avoided. If one tries to escape their fate, the conflicts that occur can be more severe than they were supposed to be. One can infer that what Oedipus is stating will eventually happen to him in the end of the play, if he is classified as the murderer.
Sophocles was a famous tragedian playwright, who influenced the development of drama, during the time of birth of ancient Greek tragedy. During this time, there were many debates in relation to fate and free will, which deeply affected the ancient Greek society. In his play, Oedipus the King, Sophocles encourages the argument by portraying the situation through his characters. Throughout the play, we are often met with Oedipus’s trial to escape his fate as he tries to leads the city of Thebes out of despairing times. Oedipus has many achieving qualities, to which the ancient Greek were fond of, and he made himself to be a good ruler.
This is the case, in “Oedipus the King”, as the instances of consequences are demonstrated when Oedipus marries his mother and kills his father, supporting the fact that fate has strength to fulfill any decree from the Gods. The prophecy of Oedipus, is a prediction of one’s future which ultimately
The destiny that Oedipus was attempting to avoid, was the destiny that he was also fulfilling. Fate is defined as a destined outcome; nothing can alter that no matter what is tried. Anyway, it was too late for Oedipus to do anything about it, for the many factors that contributed to his death were irreversible and dormant until the very ironically tragic end. Oedipus tried to master fate and it ultimately mastered him.
