Free Will Vs. Fate in Oedipus the Essay

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Free Will vs. Fate

In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the main characters Laios and Oedipus do all that they can to avoid a prophecy that was told to them by an Oracle. King Laios was told that his own son would end up murdering him, and so upon the birth of the King Laios and Lady Iscostes' son, they bound his two feet together and gave him to a servant who was meant to then kill the baby so that the prophecy would not become reality. Instead of killing the baby, the servant gives him to a Shepard man who takes him from Thebes where he was born, to Corinth, where he was given to the King and Queen of that city. When Oedipus gets older, he hears from a drunk man that he is not the son of the King and Queen of Corinth, and upon seeking that truth, the Oracle tells him that he is to "lie with [his] own mother, breed Children from whom all men would turn their eyes; And that [he] should be [his] father's murderer" (pg. 744, lines 265-267). In order for this to not become true, Oedipus flees the city of Corinth, thinking that his real parents were the King and Queen of that city, and not wanting to bring harm upon them. Both Laios and Oedipus make rash decisions and take rash actions, that unknowingly take them both straight into the direction to fulfill the same fate that both of them had been trying to avoid.

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Oedipus in turn, was not a victim of his fate, but instead made decisions and actions that were the cause of his downfall.

There were many occasions in which Oedipus had the power to make things turn out differently, yet he chose to not think things through thoroughly and instead his immediate actions caused him to fulfill his supposed destiny. At once, when Oedipus was told that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, he had the free will of going to his parents, the King and Queen of Corinth, and questioning them further about his origin. Had he chosen to tell them what the Oracle had told him, the King and Queen of Corinth could have been inclined to tell him the truth of where he came from, but instead he fled. Because he ran away from something that he thought would affect the parents he thought were his, he fled straight in the direction that eventually spiraled all of the other events that came after that.

From the beginning of his journey to get as….....

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