Oedipus The King Fate Vs Free Will Research Paper

As Jawaharlal Nehru once said, “Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play is free will.” In Oedipus the King, Oedipus was predestined to his fate, where destiny manipulated itself to only seem like free will, rather than free will being the reason for all that had happened throughout the story. All Greek tragedies feature the idea of destiny controlling the path of one’s life, and although the hero makes a tragic mistake that ultimately brings them to their downfall, this decision was predetermined by fate. Oedipus’ future was no different, and despite the fact that most of the characters in the play made choices that eventually lead to the foretold destiny, all aspects of the prophecies were arranged

Oedipus had been informed by the Oracle at Delphi that he would kill his father and then “bed,” or have children, with his mother, all while Laius and Jocasta were being told by the Oracle that their son would grow up to kill Laius. Both were fulfilled in the end, of course, and the prophecy ended up being true because Laius was in fact murdered by his son, and Jocasta did have children with Oedipus. On page 31 it read, “I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed, A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!” This line describes how Oedipus was cursed three ways from the start, and that only such fate could be brought on by the

For instance, an odd drunkard at a banquet had shouted at Oedipus that Polybus wasn’t actually his father, and this somehow lead to Oedipus leaving Corinth to figure out the truth to avoid the scandal from spreading even further. To believe that this was only an incident that randomly occurred would be a wild assumption, because it had significance and was the reason for Oedipus finding his fate at Delphi. Fate wished for Oedipus to follow his path and slowly pulled him closer and closer to pushing over the dominoes that would cause his undoing. Another case would be where Oedipus was found as a baby on the side of the mountain by a sheppard. This sheppard gave him to Corinth’s king and queen who could not conceive, and without the help of this irregular passerby on the mountain, Oedipus wouldn’t have lived another day. In Greek culture, parents who wished to avoid taking care of their children did not simply kill their child in fear of the gods punishing them. They would often do what Laius and Jocasta did by leaving the baby somewhere, so that their fate would be in the hands of the gods. Also, out of all of the cities he could have left to, Thebes was Oedipus’ first choice. On his way there, he came across his father and slayed him without knowing that Laius was his father. Fate was set up in such a way that these occurrences