Fate And Fate: Oedipus As A Tragedy Of Fate

The issues of destiny, predetermination, and foreknowledge play a part in proving Oedipus as innocent or guilty. Oedipus embodies the human condition in just this paradoxical relation to both open and closed conceptions of life. Segal (2001) suggests he is both free and determined, of able to choose and helpless in the face of choices that he has already made in the past or circumstances like those of his birth, over which he had no power of choice. Segal suggests Oedipus does not have a tragic flaw, this view rests on a misunderstanding of Aristotle and is a moralising way out of the disturbing questions that the plane means to ask. Sophocles refuses to give so easy in answer to the problem of suffering.

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However critics argue otherwise, no Oracle said that he must discover the truth and still less does it lie in his own weakness that causes easily ruin in his own strength and courage, His loyalty the Thebes and his loyalty to the truth and his self-mutilation and self-management are equally free act of choice. Dodds believes that Oedipus has been misunderstood, “Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of destiny the play proves that man has no free will but is a puppet in the hands of the gods who will pull the strings to making dance”. As Dodds suggests Oedipus can also be seen as the innocent victim of doom which he cannot avoid, the whole play is a tragedy of destiny. Evidence of this is provided within the play, four example the Oracle was unconditional, it simply said “you will kill your father you will sleep with your mother” and what an Oracle projects is bound to happen. (Dodds,

Aristotle Believes the tragic hero achieves some revelation all recognition anagnorisis, about human fate, destiny and the will of the gods. An important conceptualisation is the importance of what tragedy is defined as, in some form it can be considered as an excess. The excessive hubris demonstrated by Oedipus, is an example of how this hubris manifest itself in the actions which precipitated his fall. In accordance to Aristotle, It could be believed that it was the hubris of Oedipus as the cause of his downfall. It is his arrogance or freewill that sends him on an adventure of