In the book Oedipus the king, Oedipus tries to solve the murder of King Laius and is faced with the prophecy of killing his father, and also marrying and killing his mother. This prophecy does not allow for there to be much free will as it influences Oedipus as he will need to face the burden of killing his mother and father which takes away a lot of his free will as he will be influenced a lot by the prophecy.
In the play, Oedipus’ entire life was controlled by the gods as Sophocles demonstrates that fate will determine one’s future and will control a person no matter how much free will is there. Fate had played a huge part in Oedipus the King as all of the events that occurred, led Oedipus right into the trap of fulfilling the prophecy. …show more content…
For example, when Oedipus had acted swiftly by sending Creon, his brother in law, to go to Delphi to find out what Oedipus should do in this predicament. In this scene, Oedipus had the right to act on his own and was not influenced by the gods on that decision. But, if Oedipus had acted differently in this scene, then it is likely that the outcome would change. Another example of Oedipus acting freely, is when he had stated that he would not harm the killer as they would only have exile. This is a great example of dramatic irony because the reader knows that Oedipus inly is the killer but, the characters in the book have no idea who the killer is. In addition, we can tell that Oedipus was telling those statements and rash comments without any influence by the gods. Finally, we can see that there were many moments in the play where Oedipus was acting by himself but he had acted with free-will only before the main investigations about the murder of Laius had occurred.
In conclusion, we can see that in Oedipus the King, Oedipus faces both free will and no free will situations as some are affected by the prophecy and some are not. The prophecy goes to a very high extent as all of the decisions he makes after he becomes king were having no free will. In addition, when he had run away, that was also no free will as he ran away because he didn’t want to kill his parents which he thought was the king and queen of
In the play, Oedipus’ entire life was controlled by the gods as Sophocles demonstrates that fate will determine one’s future and will control a person no matter how much free will is there. Fate had played a huge part in Oedipus the King as all of the events that occurred, led Oedipus right into the trap of fulfilling the prophecy. …show more content…
For example, when Oedipus had acted swiftly by sending Creon, his brother in law, to go to Delphi to find out what Oedipus should do in this predicament. In this scene, Oedipus had the right to act on his own and was not influenced by the gods on that decision. But, if Oedipus had acted differently in this scene, then it is likely that the outcome would change. Another example of Oedipus acting freely, is when he had stated that he would not harm the killer as they would only have exile. This is a great example of dramatic irony because the reader knows that Oedipus inly is the killer but, the characters in the book have no idea who the killer is. In addition, we can tell that Oedipus was telling those statements and rash comments without any influence by the gods. Finally, we can see that there were many moments in the play where Oedipus was acting by himself but he had acted with free-will only before the main investigations about the murder of Laius had occurred.
In conclusion, we can see that in Oedipus the King, Oedipus faces both free will and no free will situations as some are affected by the prophecy and some are not. The prophecy goes to a very high extent as all of the decisions he makes after he becomes king were having no free will. In addition, when he had run away, that was also no free will as he ran away because he didn’t want to kill his parents which he thought was the king and queen of