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Theme of oedipus rex
How much of what happens to Oedipus Rex throughout the play is determined by fate, or prophecies
Concept of destiny in oedipus rex
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Recommended: Theme of oedipus rex
Could anyone live with knowing his or her fate? Well that is precisely what is happening to Oedipus, King Laius, and Jocasta in the story of Oedipus Rex. These three people are caught in the grasp of fate and they don’t have a choice but to go along with the story. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles the plot, setting, characters, foreshadowing, irony, and themes rely on one thing…fate.
In Ancient Greek times gods and the people that were chosen to communicate with them were very important. This was because the citizens strived for beneficial relationships with the gods and wanted to know what lay ahead for them. Some of the gods they worshiped include: Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, and Apollo. The people that are able to see the future are called seers or prophets. The gods would allow them to see what will happen and they would take what they witnessed and tell whoever it concerned. However Seers weren’t the only people who would have visions, Oracles would too. These are Priests who live and dedicate their lives to be in the Temple of the gods. These two different types of visionaries would play an important role in Oedipus Rex.
Jocasta’s and Laius’ fate all depends of Oedipus. The story begins with the Oracle giving them horrible news. It tells them that they will have a child, Oedipus, but when he grows up, the boy will in turn kill Laius and then it says that the boy will sleep with Jocasta after Laius dies. Both of the parents are in distress over this news, so when the little boy is born they tell a servant to put him on a mountain and leave him there to die. Years pass by and the King and Queen keep thinking that they are safe; however when Laius is on a crossroad on his way to speak to the Oracle Oedipus, his son, comes along. Lai...
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...wants to save his people. He discovers that his real parents are King Laius, the man he killed, and Queen Jocasta, his wife. All along he was the man that put the curse on the city he loved and he sees that the Oracle that he was certain he got rid of actually came true.
The story Oedipus Rex is a ghastly, heartrending story of three people who are being controlled by fate. Jocasta, Laius, and Oedipus try their hardest to avoid their fate that will ultimately destroy them. In the end Laius dies by the hand of his own son, Jocasta kills herself because she can’t bear the embarrassment that she slept with her son, and Oedipus becomes blind because of a curse and is left to wander his days waiting for death. Their destiny won and they are left dealing with the consequences.
Works Cited
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/gods/explore/exp_set.html
www.LitCharts.com
The question has been raised as to whether Oedipus was a victim of fate or of his own actions. This essay will show that Oedipus was a victim of fate, but he was no puppet because he freely and actively sought his doom, although he was warned many times of the inevitable repercussions of his actions.
In the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus learns things that make him realize that he is not who he thinks he is. His past is slowly unavailing throughout the play from where he came from to why it happened and he is determined to learn the truth. This play is based on tragedy and some say that Oedipus himself is to be held responsible for what happens to him towards the end. As Oedipus seeks out the truth behind the prophecy going on about killing his father and marrying his mother, Jocasta realizes the truth before Oedipus does and tries to prevent him from pursuing the knowledge.
Prophecy is a central part of Oedipus the King. The play begins with Creon’s return from the oracle at Delphi, where he has learned that the plague will be lifted if Thebes banishes the man who killed Laius. Tiresias prophesies the capture of one who is both father and brother to his own children. Oedipus tells Jocasta of a prophecy he heard as a youth, that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, and Jocasta tells Oedipus of a similar prophecy given to Laius, that her son would grow up to kill his father. Oedipus and Jocasta debate the extent to which prophecies should be trusted at all, and when all of the prophecies come true, it appears that one of Sophocles’ aims is to justify the powers of the gods and prophets, which had recently come under attack in fifth-century B.C. Athens.
Throughout the play, Oedipus is faced with the truth and fails to acknowledge it. He is first told by the drunk at the party, but he dismisses it as just something said by an ignorant drunk. He then visits the oracle and is told his fate determined by the gods and believes he can escape it by fleeing to Thebes. On his way he carries out the first part of the fate by killing his father. He then makes it to Thebes and marries Jocasta, unknowingly fulfilling the fate. Teiresias finally tells Oedipus the horrible truth, but Oedipus calls him a liar and fails to recognize the truth again. When Oedipus finally figures that what the oracle, drunk, and Teiresias was all true, he cannot handle it and blinds himself while Jocasta kills herself.
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.
Sophocles, in his work Oedipus Rex, creates a tension between the two main themes of his classic tragedy: fate and free will. The tension in the story is intended to make the reader contemplate how much free will we actually have in our lives. This tension begins in the middle of the story when we learn that an oracle prophesied to Laius, Oedipus’ father and the late king of Thebes, that he would be murdered by his own son. (ll. 784-788) Laius, trying to take his fate into his own hands, decides to get rid of his newborn son (Oedipus). However, instead of killing the child, he decides to cripple him and sends him to a mountain to die. (ll. 790-793) By getting rid of the child, Laius believes that he has escaped his fate. However, we find that his choice not to kill Oedipus himself later contributes to his own death and the fulfillment of the prophecy.
If Oedipus had not been so determined to escape and prevent the prophecy, he would not have fulfilled it. Possibly, he was doomed to fulfill the prophecy because he believed he could avoid it. Nevertheless, his fate was sealed by his actions of pride and determination. His pride of conquering the Sphinx led him to the marriage of Jocasta, his mother. When avenging Jocasta’s previous husband, and his true father, King Laius’ death, he was blinded by his pride to the concept that perhaps he was the murderer. Not knowing the truth, he cursed himself to an “evil death-in-life of misery”. Of course at that time, Oedipus failed to realize his connections to Jocasta and Laius, but recognition of the truth would bring him to his eventual suffrage.
Oedipus is first give his fate by an orcul and he runs away from home to try to escape unknowing that the wheels of fate have already started to turn(Sophocles). Oedipus runs away from his home after the gods have given him their verdict on how his life will go. He is unwilling to blindly submit to these so called gods and runs away from his home not knowing that he has run right into the web of his prophecy. While Oedipus is travelling he encounters a group of me and after a squavel he kills them but does not know that in doing this he has taken the first step into a chasm of suffering(Sophocles). Oedipus ran away from what he believed to be his prophecy in hopes that he could escape it but has only come closer to it. When the gods have given a prophecy it is like they have given you a birthmark; no matter what you attempt to do at the end of the day it will still be there and will still be apart of you. Oedipus learns that there was once a time where the former king and Jocasta had a son that was given the same prophecy as the later and soon learns that they are one in the same(Sophocles). He learns that he was given his fate before he was even able to walk and that the gears of fate have never once stopped for him. Oedipus was discarded at birth in hopes that he would never be able to fulfill the fate that the gods have bestowed upon him but the gods words are not
to find the murderer of Laius. He then finds out the truth and he himself was the murder of Laius
To destroy Oedipus, the gods granted the power of prophecy to oracles that delivered these prophecies to Laius and Jocasta. As a result, they kill their child to get rid of him and his terrible prophecies. Unfortunately, these prophecies came true because Oedipus didn’t know his real parents. If he had known his real parents, he wouldn’t have killed his father and married his mother.
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King features a tragic storyline, conveyed through two of its main characters, Oedipus and Jocasta. Starting after their marriage, Sophocles begins writing of Oedipus’ journey to discover who murdered Laios, former king of Thebes. While ruthless in his attempt to discover the truth, Oedipus and Jocasta slowly panic upon discovering that the latter gave birth to current King Oedipus. Their misfortunate only worsens as they develop ways to cope, ultimately trying to forget and destroy their knowledge. Sophocles successfully shares Oedipus the King through utilizing characters Laios, Jocasta, and Oedipus to convey a recurring pattern which suggests ignorance is bliss.
In the play Oedipus the King, Sophocles affirms that the gods ultimately have the final say to control one’s destiny; however, an individual is solely responsible for the decisions he makes. Approaching near the climax, Sophocles sets up a fundamental conflict of the play, the need for Oedipus and Jocasta to perceive the immutable state of prophecy through the consequences that deliver itself when the gods fulfill their plans for one’s destiny. The messenger even describes the omnipotent power of the gods, and witnesses the augury of death proposed by the supernatural, finally stating:
From the very beginning, Oedipus was destined to fulfill Apollo's prophecy of killing his father. Even though King Lauis tries to kill Oedipus to stop the fulfillment of this shameful prophecy, fate drives the Corinthian messenger to save Oedipus. What the gods fortell will come true and no human can stop it from happening, not even the kings. Oedipus is once again controlled by this power when he leaves the place of his child hood after he hears that he is to kill his father and marry his mother. "I shall shrink from nothing...to find the the murderer of Laius...You are the murderer..." Oedipus tried to stop the prophecy from coming true by leaving Corinth and only fate can make Oedipus turn to the road where he kills his true father. Leaving Corinth makes Oedipus lose his childhood by making him worry of such issues young people should not have to worry about and becoming a king of a strange land. Last of all, Oedipus carries the last part of the prophecy out, marrying his mother. " I would... never have been known as my mother's husband. Oedipus has no control over the outcome of his life. Fate causes Oedipus to have known the answer to the Sphinx's riddle and win his marriage to his mother, Jocasta. Had fate not intervened, the chances of marrying Jocasta would have been small since there is an enourmous number of people and places to go. Oedipus loses his sense of dignity after he discovers he is not only a murderer, but also that he had committed incest.
Fate plays a very important role in Oedipus Rex as it is clearly inescapable and is not subject to change by free will, or even the will of the Gods. We learn of the prophecy given to Laius and Jocasta that their son will kill his father and marry his mother. Upon the birth of Oedipus, Laius and Jocasta send for a shepherd to come and take him away to be killed so that the prophecy cannot be fulfilled. Throughout the story we are continually shown how various characters efforts to escape their fate lead to nothing but fulfillment of that exact fate; and that man cannot deny his sorrow and suffering by escaping the fate that provokes it.
It was of the norm for one to seek out from the gods whats they had in store for them. Consulting with oracles was considered standard. However, even though it was so widely practiced, it was still very important to have deep respect and reverence for the gods which Oedipus unfortunately lacked in. Immediately when Oedipus hears about the divine god’s prediction of his fate, he tries to run away from it. As a consequence for this, the prediction does occur. Eventually, Oedipus believed that his prophecy was no longer reasonable or valid. Because of the fact that Oedipus’ first instinct was to turn his back and run away from the prophecy in an attempt to escape it, it can be deduced that Oedipus believed that the god’s prophecies could be prevented from happening; the prophecy would not really happen and that he could change them. This demonstrates Oedipus’ disrespect for the gods because it shows that he doesn’t really think that they are all-knowing. This disrespect and impulsive behavior is what led him to Thebes and this disrespect is what made him try and thwart the prophecy when the opposite effect took place. He actually fulfilled it and caused his own downfall, ironically enough. While speaking with the chorus, Oedipus even compared himself to the gods: “You pray to the gods, let me grant your prayers” (Sophocles 245). Here, disrespect of the gods is taken to the next level because Oedipus even compares himself to