Part of a tragic trilogy and written by Sophocles during the 5th century B.C.E., the powerful Greek play of Oedipus the King embodies the idea of tragic heroes attempting to evade their fate. Sophocles invites his audience to participate in the protagonist’s downfall to demonstrate what happens when Oedipus, the protagonist, chooses to diverge from his fate. Through symbolism of crossroads, Sophocles exemplifies the idea that one can never run away from fate for destiny is determined at birth.
To begin with, Aristotle defines a tragic hero to be a literary character whose hartia would be extreme hubris and therefore makes a judgement error that eventually leads to the individual’s peripeteia. Relating to Sophocles’s tragic hero, Oedipus, one of the fatal flaws the protagonist embodies and exhibits would be avoiding his unfortunate destiny. Through a prophecy which is revealed to Oedipus’s biological parents King Laius and Queen Jocasta before he is born, the two are enlightened with the fact that when the newborn
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Halliwell’s reasoning of irony in crossroads connects to the fact that while Oedipus believes he is running away from his predetermined fate, he is actually running towards his unfortunate destiny. Furthermore, if crossroads also symbolize decision, Halliwell allows his audience to ponder about the irony in crossroads when he firmly points out “the illusion of Oedipus’s determination to choose his future… [is] expressed in the events which occur at such spots” (189). While Oedipus believes he is able to make his own decisions to evade and create his fate, Oedipus is ironically making choices not based off of his own logic, but rather the fact that his fate is predetermined at the