The Role of Fate in Oedipus the King

Fate played an important part in the plays and literature of the Greeks as is shown in Sophocles' play

Oedipus Rex

Sophocles lived during the Golden Age of Greece. He is renowned as one of the greatest dramaticist of

western literature. He was a greek through and through as he held important political positions, and he

even served as the priest of the haling diety Amynos. During his life tragedies were popular plays of the

greeks, and Sophocles noted for his writing abilites of the time, made one such play about tragedy. This

play has been the subject of much controversy and has had many diverse things said about it and its

meaning. In his play Sophocles uses fate as a major part of it as he tells a story of a man that unknowingly

kills his father and marries his mother. The greeks highly regarded fate as one of the major aspects of their

lives. The greeks believed that their lives had already been planned out before they lived them and that

things in their lives were going to happen regardless. Fate played an important part in the literature of the

greeks as is shown in Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex.

Sophocles uses a form of irony in his play to show fate. According to Maureen Howard, "Dramatic

irony, the irony of fate, is the most important element of the play."(6) According to Bert Cardullo, "Greek

tragedy has been called the tragedy of necessity or fate."(1) This is shown in the play in the way that

Sophocles takes a highly respected and wealthy man and by the end of the play he has been stripped down

to having nothing. The Oedipus is portrayed is partially debatable as Kimberly Rollins states, "Dodds

counters that Sophocles intended us ...

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...y that the greeks saw it and for the most part most of the ideals in the

play do not hold today as there is not much emphasis on fate these days.

Bibliography:

Works Cited

Cardullo, Bert. "Ibsen's Ghosts and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex." Explicator 74 1989: 41-43

Howard, Maureen C. Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. 7 Nov, 1999.

Rollins, Kimberly. On rebutting On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex. 7 Nov, 1999.

Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Literature and its writers. Ed. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston:

Bedford Book, 1997. 1416-1464