Oedipus Rex Fate Vs Free Will

Around the mid 400’s B.C.E Sophocles, an ancient Greek philosopher, wrote a radically new play that discussed many philosophical topics. The contrast of fate and free will appears many times and is a key theme in his play Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles weighs in on his opinions on this topic. Sophocles utilizes fate as a key component of his play Oedipus rex to develop Oedipus and influence the reader to sympathize with him. With the cruel and inevitable fate of Oedipus, Sophocles can make Oedipus, a ruler and king more relatable to the reader. By humanizing Oedipus with sympathy the message of the play changes from an unlucky king who was told a horrible prophecy to how fate the ultimate deciding factor in future, not choices, nor
The Messenger says to Oedipus, “The news I bring ought to mean joy for you, though it may be you will find some grief in it...Death holds [Polybos] in his sepulcher”(Sophocles lines 891-892 and 897). The Peripeteia is the turning point in a play. Oedipus believes that his prophecy did not come true for he did not murder his father Polybos, but little does Oedipus know Polybos was not his real father. This turning point is crucial to the play because it adds hope to the characters that his prophecy did not come true and he was not the cause of the plague put on his city, and because of the dramatic irony in the play we know that Polybos was not his real father and the prophecy was already completed, Sophocles can bring sympathy to Oedipus for it was not the fact he choose to murder his father and marry his mother but due to the Gods he
Oedipus’s unfortunate prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother is what Sophocles uses to dramatize the intensity of how much influence the Gods have on human lives. The peripeteia (the sudden reversal of fortune) a part of classic Greek tragedy is a key component in increasing the stress on free will and fate. This is where Sophocles fully portrayed his views on destiny, he also does this with Iokaste. Iokaste, his mother and eventual wife, also portrays Sophocles views of the people who believe that free will is the ultimate factor in human life. By being a foil character, Sophocles is able to project this view and add dramatic irony to his play, because it is very aware to the reader at this point that the prophecy has already been fulfilled. No matter how his father tries kill him nor Oedipus attempting to flee from his father he was bound by the Gods to fulfill his prophecy. This idea of inescapable fate is how Oedipus can be so relatable. No one is free from the will of the