Fate is often viewed as a set path that one is destined to follow. However, fate is more complicated than that. Fate accounts for the fact that we will try to escape it and this creates various paths for us to follow, that eventually end up at the same place - our destiny. When one tries to avoid their fate, one just ends up following a different path with the same endpoint. The story of Oedipus is a detailed example of how humans, no matter how hard they try, ultimately do not have a choice as to where their life will take them. Both Oedipus and Laios tried to outsmart their fate but despite these attempts they eventually received the same ending they tried so hard to escape. Laios gets killed by the man prophesied to kill him and Oedipus
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Once he learned of his prophecy to kill his father and wed his mother, he tried to stop this from happening by leaving home and the people whom he thought were his parents (p.42). However, en route to a new life, he encountered his actual father and killed him. Of course he didn’t know he killed his father, he thought it was a random stranger. He then proceeded to the kingdom of Thebes, where he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and as a reward for ridding the city of the plague, was crowned King of Thebes. As king, he also married Jocasta, his biological mother. By thinking he can change his destiny by sheer will he only took a shortcut to his destiny. If he stayed in Corinth, it might have been years until he even met his parents and committed murder and incest. Ultimately his attempts to flee his destiny just brought about his downfall quicker, which was guaranteed from the beginning. Of course he didn’t fall immediately. It was years before he realized what he’d done and begins to put the pieces together. He wondered what “if that stranger [he killed] and Laios were kin.” (p.43) When he figured it out he did he could not forgive himself. The last thing Oedipus wanted was to hurt his parents, but by trying not to, that’s exactly what he did. He found his real parents and committed horrible
Once he learned of his prophecy to kill his father and wed his mother, he tried to stop this from happening by leaving home and the people whom he thought were his parents (p.42). However, en route to a new life, he encountered his actual father and killed him. Of course he didn’t know he killed his father, he thought it was a random stranger. He then proceeded to the kingdom of Thebes, where he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and as a reward for ridding the city of the plague, was crowned King of Thebes. As king, he also married Jocasta, his biological mother. By thinking he can change his destiny by sheer will he only took a shortcut to his destiny. If he stayed in Corinth, it might have been years until he even met his parents and committed murder and incest. Ultimately his attempts to flee his destiny just brought about his downfall quicker, which was guaranteed from the beginning. Of course he didn’t fall immediately. It was years before he realized what he’d done and begins to put the pieces together. He wondered what “if that stranger [he killed] and Laios were kin.” (p.43) When he figured it out he did he could not forgive himself. The last thing Oedipus wanted was to hurt his parents, but by trying not to, that’s exactly what he did. He found his real parents and committed horrible