Oedipus Rex 2

Fate is an issue that is mentioned in almost every religion. The

majority of people living since the beginning of time up until the present,

have had a some sort of opinion on the subject. Oedipus Rex is a story that

is held together by the fact that fate is more powerful than anyone's free

will. On this strong basis of fate, free will doesn't even exist. This is a

belief that can be accepted or denied, but in Oedipus's story, fate is proved

inevitable.

In the very beginning of the story, before we hear from the oracle,

there is already foreshadowing of Oedipus' impending doom. He himself

states to the people, "Sick as you are, not one is as sick as I" (Sophocles 5).

This statement is almost eerie when looking back upon it. Alone, it seems as

if he knows that he is ill-fated, but reading on he clarifies his pain in this

way; "Each of you suffers in himself alone/His anguish, not another's; but my

spirit/Groans for the city, for myself, for you" (Sophocles 5). His pain is not

his future, it is the plague of the country.

The same basic prophecy of Oedipus is proven in many characters. No

matter how many times a specific character tried to play off fate and try to

get rid of the situation it stayed exactly the same. Teiresias, the oracle,

knows the end of all fate. He knows that fate controls every minute of an

individual's life; "How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be/When there's

not help in truth!" (Sophocles 16) Oedipus was told by Teiresias that in his

later years he would be the killer of his own father, and would marry his own

mother. In his attempt to avoid this situation, he left both of his parents

and traveled to a far away city called Thebes. Once there he was married to

a woman, that he himself was positive was not his mother, for his mother

was the woman that he had left back in Corinth. Also, being so far from his

known home, there was no chance... [continues]

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