Free Will In Sophocles 'Oedipus The King'

Do humans have free will or are they influenced by greater forces beyond their control? In these three works, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Cranes by hwang sun, and Censors by Luisa Valenzuela the subject of free will is addressed. Oedipus in the play by Sophocles, tries to run away from fate, ends up being doomed. In the short story by Luisa Valenzuela, Juan tries to flout the policy by getting a job as a censor so he could intercept his own mail, which results in him being executed. These characters depicts how free will is quixotic and how they are fate
Is irreversible. Through Oedipus, Sophocles portrays how individual’s fate is determined by greater forces beyond their control. Oedipus is the king of Thebes who undergoes a series
After being told by the oracle of Delphi that one day he kill his father and marry his mother, therefore he fled the city of Corinth (where he grew up). The play turns out to be ironic as he tries to run away from his fate but ends up setting the stage by killing his father(king Laius) on his way to Thebes. Oedipus then becomes king of Thebes after he solves the riddle posed by the Sphinx, and marries queen Jocasta(his mother). This shows how the prophecy is accordingly played. Although Oedipus tries to avoid his fate by running away, he still got the same results. His pursuit of Apollo was to solve the murder of King Laius, to save the city from the plague, but instead he winds up convicting himself. Apollo in the story represents the greater force that determines Oedipus's fate by setting him up for self-destruction. Later in the play, he hires Teiresias, a blind prophet to tell him about his knowledge of the
Juan lives in a restricted society where mail are passed to the Censor’s office to be examined and censored. Juan’s Intention was to send a love letter for his love(Mariana). After sending it he realizes that it might bring harm for her, so he decides to get a job as a censor so he could intercept his mail. It was not his own will to be censor, he was influenced by the idea that his love would be endangered. Juan also loses his free will when he joins the censors. After work, one of the employers tried to organize a strike for higher wages, but Juan snitches on the man instead and gets promoted. He snitched because he was manipulated by the fact he would outrank his co-workers. This also shows how he lost his free will because he was being manipulated and not actually what he wanted to do. As a censor, he works his way up the ladder quickly from section K to section B. Juan is now a victim of his devotion to his work. When Juan finally intersect his own letter to Mariana, the narrator describes, “Naturally, he censored it without regret. And just naturally, he couldn’t stop them for executing him the following morning, another victim of his devotion to his work” (Valenzuela 188). Finally this quote also ties in to the theme because it is showing how he has completely changed and no longer have free will. In the beginning when he joined as a censor his pursuit was