Is Life Fate or Free Will?
The play Oedipus the King is a process of fulfilling the prophecy that God has given to Oedipus. The author, Sophocles used fate to unfold the plot of this story and to develop the characters. People wonder how their life is going to turn out and agonize over whether to follow it or avoid it, so his play was sufficiently attractive to the audience. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles expresses its main theme, fate; how it leads this play to tragedy, how it affects to the audience, and how different two characters, Oedipus and Iocaste use their will to cope with their fate.
In particular, the Greek tragedy is based on human conflicts between predetermined future by God and one’s free will. In other words, a tragedy is a consequence of strong free will of human beings who try to overcome fate. Then, what is the primary source of human conflict? In the Oedipus the King, King Laios and Queen …show more content…
When Iocaste begs him to stop to find the killer and when he senses the deplorable truth himself, he keeps finding the truth. Even when he realizes that he actually fulfills the prophecies, he blames himself instead of blaming anyone even though he didn’t choose this life on his own; “I will not listen. The truth must be made known” (Oedipus3, 145). In contrast, Iocaste commits suicide once she notices the tragedy during the testimony of the shepherds. She tries to avoid the fate that God has given, nevertheless the prophecy comes true. She dissuades Oedipus from finding his origin as saying, “Why should anyone in this world be afraid, since fate rules us and nothing can be foreseen? A man should live only for the present day” (Oedipus3, 64-66). That is to say, while Oedipus exerts his free will to dig up the reality of his fate, Iocaste exerts it to give up her own life to avoid the fear of revealing the truth of her
The play Oedipus the King is a process of fulfilling the prophecy that God has given to Oedipus. The author, Sophocles used fate to unfold the plot of this story and to develop the characters. People wonder how their life is going to turn out and agonize over whether to follow it or avoid it, so his play was sufficiently attractive to the audience. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles expresses its main theme, fate; how it leads this play to tragedy, how it affects to the audience, and how different two characters, Oedipus and Iocaste use their will to cope with their fate.
In particular, the Greek tragedy is based on human conflicts between predetermined future by God and one’s free will. In other words, a tragedy is a consequence of strong free will of human beings who try to overcome fate. Then, what is the primary source of human conflict? In the Oedipus the King, King Laios and Queen …show more content…
When Iocaste begs him to stop to find the killer and when he senses the deplorable truth himself, he keeps finding the truth. Even when he realizes that he actually fulfills the prophecies, he blames himself instead of blaming anyone even though he didn’t choose this life on his own; “I will not listen. The truth must be made known” (Oedipus3, 145). In contrast, Iocaste commits suicide once she notices the tragedy during the testimony of the shepherds. She tries to avoid the fate that God has given, nevertheless the prophecy comes true. She dissuades Oedipus from finding his origin as saying, “Why should anyone in this world be afraid, since fate rules us and nothing can be foreseen? A man should live only for the present day” (Oedipus3, 64-66). That is to say, while Oedipus exerts his free will to dig up the reality of his fate, Iocaste exerts it to give up her own life to avoid the fear of revealing the truth of her