Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King is a play developed by Sophocles. The play is a tragedy first performed in 429 BCE. The play is one of the best-known dramas out of the 123 dramas that Sophocles wrote. Sophocles, having received decent education, exercised outstanding artistic talents. His play Oedipus the King has been regarded as a masterpiece of construction as his prose in handling the plot with power and certainty is incomparable. His moments of passing high dramatic tension and in his use of tragic irony is highly praised by many. Oedipus the King unfolds as a murder mystery thriller, a mythic story of destiny and predetermination as well as patricide and incest. Sophocles emphasizes the irony of a king determined to expose the evils that have befallen his kingdom only to realize that he is the same person. Its plot also emphasizes the power of destiny and how inescapable it can be when betrothed on a person. Therefore, the paper’s main focus will be exploring the ideas of predetermination and free will within the plot and the characters.
Legend of Oedipus begins when Oedipus runs from his home Corinth to escape an ominous prophecy from the parents who adopted him. Oedipus sets the people of Thebes free from Sphinx when he defeats the riddle and rescues the city. For this, he marries the widow of Laius, Jocasta, and together they have four children. However, a terrible plague afflicts the city causing people diseases and death, herds of cattle are affected, and women in labor lose their children (“the plot of Oedipus”). The people come crying to their King to seek from their gods what might be causing their suffering, and so Oedipus promises them to find the answer, and he sends Creon, his brother in law on a quest to consult the gods to the solution of their troubles. Creon returns with a message that the gods have ordered that the stain among the people that shed blood and with that their curse followed to the land of Thebes should be banished and all will be well. However, the people do not understand who killed Lauis, so Creon suggests that they consult with prophet Teiresias. His prophecy, however, turns into a roller-coaster of shame, guilt, and irony of the life that Oedipus has lived. Teiresias reveals that the murderer that he so desperately seeks is indeed himself. However, the King refuses to listen and accuses the prophet and Creon of constructing a plot to overthrow him. Jocasta intervenes and tries to calm her King, he begins probing into the death of Lauis, and the circumstances start to sound familiar (“the plot of Oedipus”). With a messenger coming in and confirming that he is indeed adopted, a shepherd who was in during the rule of Lauis and rescued him proves that he is Laius and Jocasta’s child. Upon realization of what happened, Jocasta commits suicide. Oedipus pulls out his eyes, mourns with his daughters, and Creon takes over.
Free will is an individual’s ability to choose among alternatives and work without constraints from either natural or divine constraints. Predetermination is when the events of something are ordained beforehand. The plot of the play develops this two entities by developing the fate of the King. The plot recounts the gods ad their will within the play. Among the characters, the gods are seen as an essential entity that determines actions to be taken and their relevance in the people’s lives. The plot carefully develops the tension between individual actions and fate. The development of the plot from the beginning is a predetermined course that sees every action taken by the characters bring the King closer to his destiny. The idea of free will is intrinsically fused with the concept of fate and predetermination in that through the free will of the people to question and to seek clearance, they reveal their destiny and fulfill their fate in the process. If it were not for the actions of Oedipus examining his queen and seeking more clearance, which was his will, then in the minds and the hearts of the characters, fate would not have bestowed upon them.
Additionally, through the characters, the plot predetermines what fate and destiny have already set. From the beginning Oedipus develops his fate of what should happen to the person who has stained the land with a plague. Ironically, he tells himself to be cast off the land and punished in the worst possible way. Synchronically, the plot arranges themes that show the predetermination of the fate that is to befall upon the King. The themes of guilt and shame show an in-depth, more complex relationship and the struggle between two entities trying to avoid the right thing by doing what is forbidden. Further, the theme of sight and blindness shines a light into what has been hidden in the dark, causing shame and guilt. It also means bringing insight to the people who were blinded before. Finally, the theme of truth, fate, and predetermination correspond to the plot’s development and show the people what the real essence of other themes was about to reveal. Overly, the plot develops the idea of predetermination through the characters, the thematic concept, and the whole prose of the play.
Through the characters, the idea of free will is developed within Oedipus. When Oedipus tries to run away from his prophecy, believing that he might kill his father, he does so out of his free will. When he learns about his fate, his free will drive him to choose a different life path. When the messenger comes, he says, “I have good news for your whole house and your husband too” (Sophocles, 24). At this moment, Jocasta rejoices because Polybus has died by fate and not by the hands of Oedipus. Therefore, at this moment, even though Oedipus might be living his fate, he chose to run away from Corinth and not live according to what the gods had in for him.
It is also his free will that makes him pursue the truth and knowledge of his identity. His destruction comes from not his deeds but his persistent self to find the truth and dig through to what rally his life is or has been. When prophet Teiresias challenges Oedipus by saying, “Well in solving riddles, are you not the best there is?” in this, he was referring to the riddle of the King’s life. Oedipus responds by saying, “mock my excellence, and today you will find out that I am truly great”(Sophocles, 12). Through his intelligence he pursues to find out what exactly is the riddle of his life, and even though Jocasta tries to stop him and tells him to let it go, he sends for the shepherd who rescued him. Through his quest that he comes to learn of his deeds, his free will is what reveals the truth.
However, as much as Oedipus had so much to change in his life, fate controlled it. He was trying to escape a predetermined aspect of his life. One of the questions that continually one can ask is, did Oedipus have a choice, and did their choices matter? For this question, Oedipus did have a choice, and that is why his will drove him to walk away from his foster home. But what he did not have is a choice. Whatever he did, whatever his will was, it most certainly was always dragging him to his fate, that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Whichever path of life he chose, the divine forces would always follow through that path that he would fulfill what he was destined to do.
When Oedipus was born, the oracle of Delphi said that the child would be the one to kill his father, and he would, in turn, marry his mother. At this point, it becomes clear that Oedipus is already a predestined child, and he can never escape his fate. Thus the war with fate begins when Jocasta decides to send away the child, and she leaves him at mount Cithaeron hoping that he would die of natural causes. Killing him herself would not have been an option because the gods would bring more problems into their life. Since Oedipus is not destined to die, nature protects him until he finds a shepherd who takes him and gives him to another shepherd who gives the child to Polybus, a king who could not bear children (Reddy, 163-164). As he grows up, he does not know that he is adopted until a drunkard tells him. When he seeks from the oracle who his birth parents are, he is informed of the prophecy, and at this point, he decides to run away from Corinth. It is at this point that he meets King Lauis at the place where the three roads meet. A confrontation erupts, and he ends up killing Lauis (Reddy, 165). Being alone and able to tackle four men, kill them, and also kill Lauis shows that fate would work in his favor to ensure that he fulfills what he was predestined to do.
After Sphinx took control, he gave a riddle to be solved. Anyone could have solved the riddle, but destiny awaited an opportune time when Oedipus would do it, and so he did. With that, he married the queen, the one who was his mother, and became the King. Destiny and fate had it that Oedipus would be blind to every other thing, such as the fact that he married a woman who was her mother’s age and also the fact that even the prophet Teiresias had a chance to solve the riddle, but he didn’t.
Also, it is possible that the plague was meant to make it public that the prophecy had come true, and that is why Oedipus unknowingly sends Creon to find a solution to the problem, and the gods have an answer for it. The actions of Creon, Jocasta, and the prophet finally confirm that the prophecy had come to pass. Even Oedipus, who was in so much denial, finally says, “Ah, so it all came true. It’s all clear now” (Sophocles, 32). He finally accepts his fate and understands that his life was predetermined all along.
Jocasta also extends the idea of free will when she decides not to fulfill the destiny and choose not to lose her husband through her child. When the oracle of Delphi says that the child born would be the one to kill his father and marry his mother, she chooses to send their child away and die. Her choice drives her not to live according to the will of destiny but according to her own will. Even though it did not seem like the best decision to leave a child in the forest hoping that he dies, she made a choice, and she chose her life, her path of life that she would not have to face what the gods say but what she wishes for her life and her husband.
At the same time, Jocasta lives a predetermined life, a predestined path of life. Even though she tries to keep the prophecy from coming true and setting a new path of life, fate follows her through her new life. It structures her life and that of Oedipus such that the prophecy comes to be. Without her knowledge, she gets married to her son, the one she once abandoned and was never sure whether he survived or no. she ends up having kids with her son, who are the curse of Thebes.
However, the shepherd’s confession about how he rescued the child makes things become clear to her that Oedipus is the son who was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother. For a moment, she tries to turn her will into her own favor by asking Oedipus to look no further and seek no more truth. She says, “If you have some concern for your own life, then stop. Do not keep investigating this” (Sophocles, 28); she understands what is about to blow on their faces, and in her last attempt, she tries to conceal the truth and find another path to her fate although it’s too late. Her death through suicide shows that she chooses on her will not to live according to what fate has set for, not what life has predestined her to do but to be free of all of that.
Creon, on the other hand, lives his life out of his own free will. He does not wish to be King, for he does not wish to cope with the fear and stress of being a king. He says that he loves what he does, acting as a royal guide to the King, for he lives at peace and a carefree life without burdens (Sophocles, 16). At the same time, he brings success to the King because the King reflects his advices. Thus he justifies why he would not revolt to overthrow the King. After all, he does not wish for power because he wants to live in accordance with his own will. It can also be argued that it is somehow his destiny to be the King because as much as he denies that he does not wish to be a king and is comfortable with his job that he offers to the King and the palace, he ends up taking over as the King after the truth of the prophecy finally comes up.
Without a doubt, I do not think that the characters should be held responsible for their actions. When something is predetermined, it means that every action they take is premeditated by the divine nature. Therefore, in every path they choose to follow, their actions will be driven by nature’s force to act according to the prophecy. Therefore it is not in their will that they do what they choose to do, to kill, to abandon a child, or to get married to someone who is their mother. It is the divine gods who are responsible for their actions.
The play is relevant to the topic chosen because it shows to what extent fate can define a person’s life no matter how much they choose to run away from it. It shows that religion can influence individuals’ lives and change their life, thinking that they have escaped their nightmare only to realize that they live in it. But for one moment, even though living through their fate, they get a chance to live for a moment the lives that they willingly wish for. Even though free will lasts for a short time, it gives the characters a moment to live within the lives that they wish. It is a moment to cherish the unknown until that moment when divine nature decides that it is time to face what one was borne to fulfill.
In conclusion, free will is submission to one’s own desires. Even though one might be living through a predestined life by the gods that give them life, that give them the land they till and the life they enjoy, choosing the path to reach the unknown destiny is free will. For within the realm of life, the gods have a predestined purpose for every individual, but the free will that people get is to choose how to live that life, and that should count as free will.
Work cited
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. 420BCE. Retrieved https://www.slps.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=22453&dataid=25126&FileName=Sophocles-Oedipus.pdf
Reddy S. C. Predestination in Oedipus the King. International journal of humanities & social science studies. Vol 1. 3 (2014) 162-165. Retrieved https://www.ijhsss.com/files/C-S-Reddy.pdf
The plot of Oedipus the King. Randolph College. Retrieved https://www.randolphcollege.edu/greekplay/plot-oedipus-king/