Fate Vs Free Will Oedipus The King Essay

Some people say that fate is like destiny , and that we will never be able to change it . Whereas others believe that every experience we have is based off of the actions and decisions we choose. Throughout the play the main character Oedipus is torn between his own fate and freewill. In “ Oedipus The King “ a play written by Sophocles , a question emerges about whether Oedipus is controlled by fate , or if the decisions Oedipus makes throughout the play determine his free will ?
Oedipus had a pre determined set of events that would eventually lead him to his own downfall. Although Oedipus does have free will the decisions he chose to make are based off of fate, which ultimately leads to the prophecies becoming true . Throughout the entire play Oedipus pushes Tiresias, Creon , Jocasta, the Oracle , the messenger , and …show more content…
These were not the results of fate or oracles , or the gods , these were all based off of the decisions he chose to make . Fate was definitely one of the factors that caused the downfall of Oedipus . In the play the God’s have already planned out Oedipus and Jocasta’s fate even before they knew it . In fact their fate was already set in stone the day they were born . Although the fate of Oedipus was already announced trying to avoid it would not change anything , and that is what Oedipus ultimately tried to do , avoid his own fate . The play also has a sense of free will added into it as well . After Oedipus found out about his own fate , he tried everything he could to rewrite it by doing things differently to change it , not realizing that it could not be changed . I believe that the more Oedipus tried to avoid or change his fate , the closer it came . Many of the decisions he made contributed to his fate , whether they were good or bad decisions