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Free Will vs. Fate
In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the main characters Laios and Oedipus do all that they can to avoid a prophecy that was told to them by an Oracle. King Laios was told that his own son would end up murdering him, and so upon the birth of the King Laios and Lady Iscostes' son, they bound his two feet together and gave him to a servant who was meant to then kill the baby so that the prophecy would not become reality. Instead of killing the baby, the servant gives him to a Shepard man who takes him from Thebes where he was born, to Corinth, where he was given to the King and Queen of that city. When Oedipus gets older, he hears from a drunk man that he is not the son of the King and Queen of Corinth, and upon seeking that truth, the Oracle tells him that he is to "lie with [his] own mother, breed Children from whom all men would turn their eyes; And that [he] should be [his] father's murderer" (pg. 744, lines 265-267). In order for this to not become true, Oedipus flees the city of Corinth, thinking that his real parents were the King and Queen of that city, and not wanting to bring harm upon them. Both Laios and Oedipus make rash decisions...
Oedipus in turn, was not a victim of his fate, but instead made decisions and actions that were the cause of his downfall.
There were many occasions in which Oedipus had the power to make things turn out differently, yet he chose to not think things through thoroughly and instead his immediate actions caused him to fulfill his supposed destiny. At once, when Oedipus was told that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, he had the free will of going to his parents, the King and Queen of Corinth, and questioning them further about his origin. Had he chosen to tell them what the Oracle had told him, the King and Queen of Corinth could have been inclined to tell him the truth of where he came from, but instead he fled. Because he ran away from something that he thought would affect the parents he thought were his, he fled straight in the direction that eventually spiraled all of the other events that came after that.
From the beginning of his journey to get as far away from…
As a result, he flees from Corinth, where Polybus and Merope, are in order for the prophecy not to be fulfilled. The statement "truth has made me strong" is partially false, because while the main character believed that his life was exactly as he made it, it was actually shaped by his fate. A chain of events had lead to the forming of Oedipus as a strong and wise man.
Oedipus, however, does show a great deal of arrogance as a character in the actual play, no matter how much the reader or viewer may feel pity and horror at his fate. Sophocles deliberately chooses to show first Oedipus, not as an innocent, abandoned baby with an injured foot, which is the first sight a reader might have of Oedipus and is the beginning of the actual myth. Instead, the
Despite his love of the estate, the future is far better and far more promising than the Russia of the previous era. Another tragic feature of Ranevskaya's character that makes her uniquely 'modern' is that she knows her flaws. She admits that she squanders money, while Oedipus seems unaware of his arrogance until the very end of the play. Chekhov's subtlety as a playwright is that he knows that people
Oedipus is one of the most famous names in Greek mythology. His name has become both a psychological complex as well as a familiar joke. His story has come to be a synonym as well for the capriciousness of fate. But a truer picture of the character of Oedipus suggests that, rather than being an unwitting victim, Oedipus a clear hand in his own demise. Despite its reputation, Sophocles' play
At this point, no room is left for Oedipus's self-defense. He has dissolved from proud, father-like king to delusional denying maniac to an irrational, sorrowful self-abuser. At Colonus, the reader is given another glimpse into Oedipus's evolving character. Now, he is resigned to his fate, hating the fact that he must often retell his story. Still, he regains some of his pride, insisting his mistakes were not his fault.
And had Oedipus remained with the parents who raised him, the prophecy would also have been unlikely to come about. On the other hand, one might also argue that Sophocles appears to indicate that, no matter what decisions were made, free will would never have been part of it. Indeed, destiny and prophecy are so overwhelmingly strong that whatever decisions were made would have led to the final and inevitable