Oedipus Rex And Antigone

There are few playwrights who have had such a profound influence on the Greek drama as Sophocles. Throughout his lifetime, Sophocles wrote one hundred and twenty plays. Unfortunately, only seven of his works have survived in their entirety. The list of plays include: Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus, and Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex). His works focused heavily on the concepts of misery and tragedy. Several of his most famous Theban plays feature the character Oedipus such as Oedipus Rex.
Oedipus Rex is the story of the king of Thebes, Oedipus, whom has a hereditary curse is placed and who therefore has to suffer the tragic consequences of fate. During the time of the plague and despair for Thebes, King Oedipus decides to take action to restore kingdom. After receiving council from his brother-in-law Creon, and the blind prophet, Tiresias, Oedipus learns that the murderer of the former king, Laius, must be expelled from the kingdom to end the plaque upon the land. Oedipus discovers in his quest for truth, that his true identity isn’t what he thought it was. He learns that he, unknowing, …show more content…
free will. The plot of the play is driven by prophecies of the gods. Throughout the play the question of whether Oedipus has any choice in his fate is raised. Did he have free will when he fled his adoptive home in fear of a prophecy coming to pass, or was it fate that drove him to inevitably kill his real father and marry is mother? I could argue that he may have had free will when he decided to blindly quest for real truth of his past. Queen Jocasta even warns the king to give up his crusade for knowledge, fearing that he may find a terrible truth. Ultimately Oedipus’ outcome wasn’t decided by his decision to murder his father in the past but by his stubborn persistence to uncover the truth in the present. Free will vs Fate is topic that still persists in modern