Proactive or Paranoid?

Oedipus the King, a tale of one man’s hubris, paranoia, and willingness to sacrifice his own happiness for the happiness of others. Does one man’s fate designate who he will become? Is it possible to change the fate we are given? Or no matter how hard we try, deep down, it is our qualities that force us to make our fates a reality? In Sophocles’s play Oedipus the King we see a man who tried his hardest to change his own fate at all cost, but because of his human qualities he actually forced his fate upon himself.

In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is told that he will marry his mother and murder his father. He is told by the Delphic oracle this information but he wants to change his fate so he banishes himself from what he believes is place of birth. As he is wondering, he stumbles across a caravan. After some arguing, due to his hubris, he kills all the men in the caravan. One of the men in the caravan turned out to be his father, King Laios. Oedipus at the time did not know this. He then entered the city of Thebes and broke the plague of the sphinx by solving its riddle. Because of this he was awarded the recently widowed Queen Iocaste, who is actually his mother. He married Iocaste and had children with her.

A new plague comes over the land of Thebes and Oedipus wants to help his people. He begins searching for the solution. At the same time he worries that he may also be killed by whoever killed King Laios. At one point he is talking to his uncle/ Brother-in-law Creon in which he states, “And not as though it were for some distant friend, But for my own sake, to be rid of evil. Whoever killed King Laios might – who knows? – decide at any moment to kill me as well. By avenging the murdered king I protect myself.” (Prologue. 139-...

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... So, Oedipus had every right to be worried. We later get another glimpse of Oedipus’s hubris as he address the chorus, “ Is this your prayer? It may be answered come, Listen to me, act as the crisis demands, and you shall have relief from all these evils.” (Scene 1. 1-4) in this quote he is basically telling the chorus, which represent the city of Thebes, that he once solved the plague problem, and because he is so smart and powerful he will do it again.

As one delves into the play Oedipus the King one sees that even though one may think one can escape one’s fate, it is not possible and the harder we try the closer to one’s fate one becomes. As Oedipus tries to escape his fate his personal qualities actually force him to make his fate true. Not only does it teach us this valuable lesson but it also shows that one’s motives and actions make one’s true colors show.