Fate, Free Will, and Suffering in Oedipus and The Darker Face of the Earth

Introduction: Two Tragedies, One Human Condition

Oedipus the King and The Darker Face of the Earth are two plays that explore the theme of pain and suffering as inherent to the human condition. At the same time, both pose fundamental questions regarding the relationship between fate and free will, consciousness and self-control. These questions are illustrated through the two protagonists — Oedipus and Augustus — yet the answers remain ambivalent, relying as they do on the heterogeneous nature of interpretation and point of view.

Plot Parallels: Oedipus Rex and The Darker Face of the Earth

Because of a prophecy foretelling that King Laios of Thebes would be killed by his own son, who would then marry his own mother, the king and queen decide to give their infant to a shepherd with orders to kill him. The shepherd, however, takes the child to Corinth, where he is adopted by King Polybus and his childless queen. Upon learning of the prophecy, Oedipus resolves not to return to Corinth. He later encounters a man at a crossroads, accompanied by four attendants, who attempts to force him from his path. When the man strikes him with a staff, Oedipus kills him and three of the attendants. The gods demand vengeance for the death of Laios as the price of lifting a plague upon the city. As Oedipus pursues justice, he discovers that he himself is Laios's murderer. Jocasta uncovers the full secret and kills herself.

The Darker Face of the Earth, written by Rita Dove, rewrites the tragedy of Oedipus — a son who kills his father and marries his mother — and combines it with more contemporary questions regarding freedom, integration, civil rights, and prejudice. Amalia is a white plantation owner in the pre-Civil War South. She gives birth to a slave's child but, under threat from her legitimate husband, is compelled to give the infant up with the help of her white doctor. Years later, a slave named Augustus is brought to the plantation in chains and is seduced by Amalia, who turns out to be his biological mother. When he realizes he has slept with his own mother, he murders his father, Louis, and would kill Amalia as well, but she takes her own life to spare him.

The two protagonists have no ethical or moral defense for their actions. In both cases, the killers are condemned by both earthly and moral law. Just as uncontrollable rage drives Augustus to murder everyone in the household, Oedipus's killing at the crossroads was an act of manic fury and injured pride — actions that could neither be accepted nor justified by the morality of ancient Greece. Had more citizens of Thebes witnessed the slaughter, they would surely not have supported or defended Oedipus. The only surviving witness from the crossroads could not bear to face him and asked to be sent far from the palace. Oedipus himself acknowledges the cruelty and irrationality of his actions:

Moral Responsibility and the Limits of Rage

"In rage / I struck the driver who had turned me back. / And when the old man saw it, watching me / As by the chariot side I stood, he struck / My forehead with a double-pointed goad. / … in a trice, / With this right hand I struck him with my staff / … And then I slew them all." (Sophocles, lines 834–842)

Likewise, in The Darker Face of the Earth, many of the slaves do not support reckless, unjustifiable killing. This moral reverence for life extends even toward the abusive white slave owners. Henry voices his opposition to the planned revolt with the words: "I'm against the white man / … but … murder? / Killing all, without difference, / women and children? / 'Thou shalt not kill,' saith the Commandments" (Dove 81).

Family Rejection and the Roots of Violence

Another important issue arises when judging the actions of the two protagonists: both were victims of their parents' rejection in infancy. The theme of family ties — or more precisely, their absence — is central to both plays. While Oedipus was effectively condemned to death by his own parents, who handed him to a shepherd with orders to kill him, Augustus was rejected by his mother's husband, Louis, who makes his feelings unmistakably clear at the infant's birth: "Get rid of it! Destroy the bastard!" The absence of loving family situations offers a partial explanation for the violent tempers both men display.

Psychiatrist James Lieberman argues that Sophocles' play concentrates on themes of familial love and altruism rather than the hostility and fear that Freud attributed to it in his famous theory — the Oedipal complex, which draws its name from the play (Bower 248). Lieberman points out that for a connection to carry significance, there must be an underlying human relationship. Laios was Oedipus's biological father, but they had no relationship to give that connection meaning. Lieberman notes that "Oedipus really loved his (adoptive) father" and that this relationship defines the play's moral: "honest, loving family ties are the best defense against dire prophecy — the greatest security in an uncertain world" (Bower 248). The play supports this view. Oedipus's love for his adoptive parents is precisely what motivates him to leave Corinth. He exercises his free will in an effort to protect them from the fate warned of by the Oracle.

Conclusion: The Consequences of Unchecked Free Will

The Darker Face of the Earth reflects many of the themes and plot elements that also occur in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. In both cases, although the protagonists are confronted by the powerful forces of destiny, their fate is a direct consequence of their choices regarding the exercise of free will. Both Augustus and Oedipus are victims of their own bloody decisions. Because their actions are no longer governed by rational thought, they exercise their free will poorly, and they must therefore accept the consequences — suffering the painful fate that they themselves have created.