Faisal Chudary
English 205
Professor Gentry
Fate, Destiny and Free Will in Oedipus the King
Before I analyze the play I have to first define what Fate, Destiny and Free will is. I think Fate is development of events that are outside of one’s control and those events are predetermined by the Gods or supernatural powers. On the other side Free Will is when one controls their own actions. Concepts of Fate, Free will and Destiny are common in Oedipus the King. Even though the choices Oedipus made were of his own free will, I think ultimately his actions and his life is controlled by fate.
From the beginning of the play Oedipus took many actions leading to his own downfall. Oedipus is a good man and out of compassion for his suffering people he had Creon go to Delphi to find a way for plague to end. When he learned Apollo’s word, he could have calmly investigated the murder of the former king Laius, but in his impulsiveness, he curses and outlaws the murderer, and in so, naively curses himself. “I hear by outlaw the killer myself, by my own words, though I’m a stranger both to the crime and to accounts of it. (p714)”
“It is said that Laios was destined to die at the hands of a son born to him and me. Yet, as rumor had it, foreign bandits killed Laios at a palace where three roads meet. …show more content…
You did it with no help from us. We had nothing to teach you (P. 709).” Oedipus left korinth with good intentions and defeated the sphinx but as it turns out, in his departure he killed his father and his defeat of the sphinx he won Jokasta’s hand. In fact it seems to me he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because if Oedipus had known the man he was about to kill was his father, and the women he was about to marry was his mother, the events that followed would most likely never have taken place. Keeping that in mind, it was only because of fate Oedipus committed the crimes he
English 205
Professor Gentry
Fate, Destiny and Free Will in Oedipus the King
Before I analyze the play I have to first define what Fate, Destiny and Free will is. I think Fate is development of events that are outside of one’s control and those events are predetermined by the Gods or supernatural powers. On the other side Free Will is when one controls their own actions. Concepts of Fate, Free will and Destiny are common in Oedipus the King. Even though the choices Oedipus made were of his own free will, I think ultimately his actions and his life is controlled by fate.
From the beginning of the play Oedipus took many actions leading to his own downfall. Oedipus is a good man and out of compassion for his suffering people he had Creon go to Delphi to find a way for plague to end. When he learned Apollo’s word, he could have calmly investigated the murder of the former king Laius, but in his impulsiveness, he curses and outlaws the murderer, and in so, naively curses himself. “I hear by outlaw the killer myself, by my own words, though I’m a stranger both to the crime and to accounts of it. (p714)”
“It is said that Laios was destined to die at the hands of a son born to him and me. Yet, as rumor had it, foreign bandits killed Laios at a palace where three roads meet. …show more content…
You did it with no help from us. We had nothing to teach you (P. 709).” Oedipus left korinth with good intentions and defeated the sphinx but as it turns out, in his departure he killed his father and his defeat of the sphinx he won Jokasta’s hand. In fact it seems to me he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because if Oedipus had known the man he was about to kill was his father, and the women he was about to marry was his mother, the events that followed would most likely never have taken place. Keeping that in mind, it was only because of fate Oedipus committed the crimes he