The Irreversible Fate: The power of the Gods in determining density The play Oedipus the King by Sophocles is a depiction that fate is not of free will or random chance instead, it is an inescapable density set by those in higher power. The author uses the overshadowing character of the deity Apollo to reveal and control Oedipus’ fate. Oedipus unfortunate fate of having incest with his mother and killing his father did not accidentally occur rather, it is a predetermined density created by Apollo. It is clear that Oedipus unfortunate outcome is not by chance because his parents disregardment for him is cause “through fear/of evil oracles...…
Humans are creatures of habit – once they get used to doing something, any change to it is jarring and often unwelcome. The chorus’ line, “The straying dreams of men/ May bring them ghosts of joy:/But as they drowse, the waking embers burn them;/or they walk with fixed eyes, as blind men walk” (Sophocles Antigone 210) articulates this idea, and the idea can be found in multiple tragic works. For example, in Oedipus Rex, Oedipus tries to escape fate but fate reminds him that he is still its puppet. Also, Creon from Antigone believes that his authority surpasses the gods’, until they abruptly bring him back down to earth.…
Achilles and Oedipus Change of Fate It is often believed that we have no control over fate and our future is already decided by some higher power. However, I do not believe this is true for Achilles in Homer’s The Iliad and Oedipus in Sophocles Oedipus the King. These two characters were given the opportunity to change their fate but they were blinded by their egos and overwhelming amounts of pride.…
Humans often cling to the idea that they have complete control over their lives. They want to think that every action is their decision, that every person has the potential to shape his or her future. A blindfolded birthday boy swinging at a piñata believes that he is in control, while really his father holds his son’s hand as he swings the bat. The son assumes that he is in control of his swing, while the father is the guiding force behind the motion. The father gives the son this illusion in order to promote a mistaken perception of freedom.…
In Sophocles’ Greek play Oedipus Rex, the King of Thebes and the protagonist of the play, Oedipus, suffers from arrogance, stubbornness as well as capriciousness and his yearning for power leads to his exile as well as his downfall as king; he encounters a mystery in regards to his plagued kingdom and its danger of extinction which leads to the investigation for the man responsible for the annihilation of the land. During the investigation, Oedipus is confronted with the mystery behind his past and who his true parents are. Throughout the play, Oedipus experiences the unsightly truth of destiny and the inevitability of one’s faith. Enlightenment is not achievable for the static and impulsive character Oedipus; however, Sophocles’ play offers…
1) Compare the role of human reason in Oedipus the King with its role in Plato’s Crito Although providing similar framework and subject matter, Oedipus the King and Plato’s Crito explore the influence of the enchanted and disenchanted Greek world differently. This allows for a deep exploration of the role of human reasoning within the two texts. Both text’s as a whole generally explore the same main points of Greek reasoning, yet key differences among the themes of the disenchanted and enchanted world provide variances in the presentation of reasoning and rationality. The disenchanted world has a large influence on human reason as portrayed by Oedipus the King.…
Oedipus the King written by Sophocles is one of the best known tragic plays to date. It executes fear, pity, shame, and humiliation. It makes it hard for the reader to consider him as a hero. When one thinks about the word tragic you think of something negative, evil, outcome very dim, something completely out of control. There are five characteristics of a tragic hero.…
Around 430 B.C., an Athenian tragedian, Sophocles, wrote the play Oedipus Rex. Capturing the complexity of human consciousness, Sophocles pitted fate and free will against one another in order to make the tragic fall of Oedipus impactful to the audience by invoking a sense of pity and sadness for his character. It can be argued that in this play, individual free will instead of fate was the dominant factor that made Oedipus a tragic hero because of his sharp decline from beloved king to disgraced murderer. Fate can be defined in numerous ways, according to Sophocles; it had “terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war.…
Throughout the course of human history, reverence to one or many gods has affected the ways of life and literature. Higher powers controlling one’s life are commonly written about, referenced, and even evaded. It can be seen throughout the text Oedipus Rex, that Greek culture greatly influences Sophocles in displaying the thematic message that fate is ultimately unavoidable. Within the text of Oedipus Rex it can distinctly be seen that the Greek time period and lifestyle inspired and affected Sophocles in his writing.…
Oedipus the King has remained a contentiously debated literary work for a multitude of reasons. Arguably, the most important debate encompassing this work relates to the relationship between how individuals exercise free-will and how fate, and sometimes the Gods, influence their actions and their lives. In an article of literary criticism, entitled Tampering With the Future: Apollo 's Prophecy in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex by Christopher Nassaar, Nassaar focuses on how Oedipus fulfilled Apollo 's prophecy by doing everything he could to avoid it. In Nassar 's mind, Oedipus made the mistake of overreacting to Apollo’s prophecy as he “panics and rushes into catastrophe” (Nassaar 148). Oedipus realizes the extent to which his fate is horrendous,…
An Undeserved Fate: Oedipus “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles is a testament to his genius and greatness in this complex play. It is not easy to determine if Oedipus deserves his fate even though it was unavoidable. However, considering everything that had befallen Oedipus he remained a good person down to the very end, and I believe that he did not deserve his fate. Oedipus suffered much; the majority was out of his control. The Herdsman could have intervened several times to keep Oedipus from his own fate.…
I. Before his birth, Oedipus was assigned to a miserable life, but his stubborn attempt to fix his destiny led to his life becoming all the worse; his exile was not destined by fate but was a product of his own actions. A. The fact that Oedipus marries his mother and kills his father cannot be blamed on him because his fate was set before he was born. 1. Tiresias tells Oedipus that the prophecy made when he was born has come true and that he will “be detected in his very heart of home: his children’s father and their brother, son and husband to his mother, bed-rival to his father and assassin” (230).…
Sophocles’ tragic play, Oedipus the King, serves as yet another didactic tool of Ancient Greek culture. It heavily focuses on the recurrent theme that a fate assigned by the gods can not be escaped by any means. Sophocles embodies this theme through his tragic hero Oedipus. Even though Oedipus proves himself as a confident capable leader, his tragic flaw is seen through his consistent use of human reason in his attempt to locate the murderer of king Laius. His hubris contributes to his downfall because it allows him to think he can use reason to conquer his fate.…
Fate vs. Free Will Many believe that fate is what will control a person’s destiny and once it is set up for them, there’s no changing it, but others believe that free will has also a big part to rewrite a person's destiny. Oedipus was born with a terrible fate that wasn’t his fault or his choosing. All he could do was try to change his destiny or help it come true.…
All these adjectives can be assigned to the underlying main character in this play; and often in our entire lives. Fate is who we speak of, a recurring topic in Sophocles’ acclaimed tragedy “Oedipus the King”. The currents that carry Oedipus through his journey of self-discovery often take unexpected and surprising curves, nothing less expected from a masterful tragedy of this caliber. The plot twists and turns around the characters, themselves submitting themselves to the endless waves of fate’s ripples. The play’s main plot is a clever paradox, brought to creation by Oedipus’ wishes to prove the oracle’s predictions wrong.…