Theme Of Fate In Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex is an ancient Greek tragedy featuring a theme of fate and free will by Sophocles. It tells the tragic fate of Oedipus, king of Thebes. Oedipus is facing the dilemma of whether to investigate the claims of the blind prophet, Tiresias, who foretells that Oedipus will kill his father and lay with his mother. Not taking kindly to such accusation on his kingly ego, Oedipus berates the prophet and returns a different accusation, that Teiresias is conspiring with Creon to steal the throne of Thebes. Creon, Oedipus’ brother-in-law, denies these claims and says that Oedipus is simply paranoid. Paranoia compelling him to seek the truth, to the dismay of those who know the reality of the situation, he ultimately discovers he has already fulfilled his fate. Driven to madness, Oedipus gouges out his eyes and exiles himself; he curses the destiny that he was born with and curses his own blindness toward fate and illusion of free will projected towards him. The audience sees …show more content…
Jocasta and Laius erroneously attempted to disregard the prophecy—the sole aspect of fate leading the plot—and avoid their own foretold demise. Jocasta, being the only surviving parent, is able to demonstrate to the audience how misguided they were to revolt against this outcome. Unlike Oedipus, however, Jocasta is not lead by the words of Tiresias. She states that “whate’er the God deems fit...himself unaided will reveal”, restathat unless told from God himself, a prophecy cannot be true. Under this false sentiment that she is not governed by fate, that she is in fact free from the prophet’s word, she concludes that Laius was not killed by the hand of his son’s—which the audience later discovered to be false. Upon learning of this revelation, she finds that she could not evade the prophecy, and that regardless of her actions, her resistance amounted to nothing other than which was