Oedipus Rex Fate Vs Free Will Essay

When analyzing “Oedipus Rex”, the concept of Fate vs. Free-will is incredibly prevalent. Even though free-will could potentially have contributed to the outcomes of the situations presented in the story, Sophocles wrote “Oedipus Rex” as commentary to the Greeks' lack of regard for the fate bestowed upon them by the gods. This is exhibited throughout the play in many cases, most notably when Teiresias, the blind, noble prophet, and speaker of the truth is condescended upon simply because Oedipus is unhappy with the repulsive events to which he has been made aware of, Oedipus's constant need for justification as to why the oracles are false and correlational occurrences are mere coincidence, and Jocasta and Oedipus’ blatant ignorance of the oracles and the evidence of the prophecies being accomplished ultimately ruined them.

First, Sophocles wrote “Oedipus Rex” as commentary to the

This is shown in the reference where Oedipus and Creon are discussing the oracles’ relation to events that have occurred. Creon signifies the murder of Laius as potentially being on the hand of Oedipus. However, Oedipus abruptly rejects this idea with full confidence despite lack of factual basis, other than his own self-serving bias. Oedipus’ foolish surface-level ignorance in approaching the subject of the oracles comes full-circle to cause harm being that he is indeed the murderer of Laius, which is a slippery slope to a slew of quite a few major dilemmas. In this particular example, Oedipus’ shallowly founded state of denial represents the deception the Greeks exposed themselves to when attempting to alter the fate the gods created. This creates a foundation for the outcomes later in the plot that exemplify just how brutal the consequences of “playing the gods” may be. Through this, Sophocles further utilizes his work to explore the notion of the ways he believed the gods used fate to shape the events in ancient