Oedipus The King Fate Vs Free Will Essay

In Oedipus The King by Sophocles, the question of fate arises towards the end of the play as Oedipus’ “fate” was already told to him in the very beginning. As this is set loose throughout the play Sophocles creates a plot that could be brought down by the fate of Oedipus or by his own free will, which ties together the play and Roland Barthe’s “Literature is the question minus the answer.” quote as this leaves the story at an interesting standpoint.

The question itself can be asked in several ways and thus answered in several ways. Does fate control Oedipus? or Does Oedipus control fate? Even though he is told that he himself is the murderer of the past king Oedipus seems to deny this as truth. Sophocles begins the play like this because as there are many different ways to solve a puzzle, there

He portrays Oedipus as a character that defies anything to be controlling him other than himself. If fate were to control him, in his mind, he would not be king as he says “ know- nothing Oedipus, I stopped the sphinx.” almost as he is going against the idea that there is no way he was already written out to do this, that it was him himself that had the power to do this great deed for the kingdom. On the other hand, the prophets had told him exactly what would happen and as these things happen he starts to fall more and more into the idea of fate as an unchangeable thing “ I am afraid that Apollo’s prophecy may come true.”. This truth is not far for Oedipus as he continues his journey but as he continues, if he had gone back and not known the truth, leads to his downfall and vice versa in the eyes of fate. Oedipus ,though, is also very courages and with this declines every ounce of negativity that