Essay Example on Oedipus' Fate: Pride, Arrogance & Wrath of Fate

Thesis: It is Oedipus' pride, arrogance, insolence and reckless behavior that bring down the wrath of fate upon him.

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Introduction

Oedipus the King, also known as Oedipus Rexor Oedipus Tyrannus, is a Greek tragedy by famous Athenian storyteller Sophocles first performed in 429BC (Adade-Yeboah 20). This tragedy tells the story of Oedipus, king of Thebes, who is fated by the gods of Olympus to kill his sire and marry his mother. Sophocles' tale seeks to tackle severe themes like faith, and superstition, the power of free will and fate, and from the get-go, there is an introduction to a world rife in fear, the divine, and the gods as the absolute seat of power. In this respect, this is a story about the battle between free will and submitting to fate.

The tragic hero, Oedipus, is a man whose life is already detailed by the gods even before he is born. Through him, perhaps the most significant lesson one can pick from this piece of art is a person cannot escape his/her fate no matter how much they try to. Oedipus is a king full of pride, and strength, a free-thinking will that unclenches before gods, yet even he cannot bend the will of the gods (Adade-Yeboah 23). It is his pride and lack of belief in the divine and an obsession with uncovering his truth that finally lands his killing blow.

Thesis Argument

Free-will can easily be described as the conduct of man to express individual choice without being moved or influenced by an unseen power, while fate can easily be equated to the force behind destiny or purpose in one's life (Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah, Kwaku Ahenkora, and Amankwah, 10). To understand the story of Oedipus of Thebes, we must then follow the period and the rules by which literary movements at the time played by.

In the Hellenic era, a time which Greece was at its best, workers of poetry and science flourished. In art, poetry, classicism ran supreme, and by such, all art produced conformed to the rules that governed this literary movement. Classicists had strict rules of engagement. To them, painting or poetry was divided into tragedy, comedy, and tragicomedy, but all these three divisions had one thing in common: the belief in the divine. Everything in Hellenic Greece strived to show this dedication to the Greek pantheon (Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah, Kwaku Ahenkora, and Amankwah, 12). The city of Athens had temples and statues dedicated to none but their goddess, Athena, of whom the town was named. Sailors prayed to Poseidon, and politicians looked up to Zeus. The entire country was steeped in the belief that as men, we are nothing but the playthings of the gods. It is no surprise then that Sophocles' tale revolves around the Greek pantheon and their plans for king Oedipus.

The Clash Between Free Will and Fate

It is plausible to say Oedipus does not accept the will of the gods. By extension, He believes in fate, his destiny. This is seen when he ventures out Corinth to seek his truth, portraying what we can only describe as free will (Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah, and Edward Owusu 37). He escapes what fate has put in store for him, needing to find the murderer who took his father's life. He leaves Coring on a self-search, a mission that, to him, is also his escape from fate's clutches.

Oedipus's Flaws and Human Nature

What Oedipus does not understand is that even in the wilds of Greece, fate still rules over his mind. He learns the rules of engagement; for every deed he does, there are consequences. These might be good deeds or bad; consequences still dog him (Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah, and Edward Owusu 39). From a subjective point of view, one is left wondering, it is a person's character and the qualities he presents to those around him guides his hand in every action he/she partakes of, then is Oedipus' actions responsible for his tragedy and not himself as a man? His flaws and strengths as a character are to blame for his inevitable downfall, not fate. Oedipus is a man seen to be hot-headed and short-tempered; he is impulsive, rash when angered, and very stubborn. His flaws dictate how he makes trivial decisions throughout the story. They result in unnecessary complications and consequences that could have been avoided altogether. The fall of Oedipus as a man and a king are brought about because of his human flaws; it is a consequential result in his fiery behavior (Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah, and Edward Owusu 41). When put under a discerning eye, Oedipus is a man with glaring flaws. When he tested, set to the test, he lets his superstition dictate how he handles the situation. Yes, fear and believing in a more significant power watching over man is a welcome part of humanity, but letting it influence the making of such trivial decisions is far from acceptable. Is it not right then, to say that the downfall of Oedipus Rex is brought about by his flaws as a person and not by some cosmic power that lords over a man?

Provoking the gods of Olympus is a reality Oedipus toys with. He is a man cursed, and he knows this. Despite being deeply superstitious, he is seen as a man that will not bend to the rules of nature (Knox et al. 72). Fate will not give him a future; he does not wish to live. Sophocles brings to attention the fact that without this war between free will and fate, this entire story would not exist. This tragedy would have been nonexistent (Knox et al. 73). Oedipus is a firm believer in the gods. He listens to his oracles who tell him the plans the gods have for his country and him as a person. He fears what fate has presented, and this is only possible because of his staunch belief in the gods (Knox et al. 74). To Oedipus, altering the future is a possibility through the power of free will. It's a lost cause to try to circumvent the laws of the universe by merely demonstrating free-will. This is what leads to his fall.

In Oedipus the King, fate is presented as a prophecy from Apollo's oracle. The prophecy itself shakes the Oedipus as he is a believer of both the gods and his city's prophet. The prophecy states that the king would murder his father and wed his mother. This statement becomes the bane of his existence, finally driving him to his death (Knox et al. 74). It controls his actions on several occasions, even bringing him to Thebes from Corinth. He leaves his supposed parents in Corinth out of gripping fear, thinking to protect them from their prophesied tragedy. In Thebes, he believes the first half of the oracle's words have proven false. He ends up murdering in Thebes and marrying the widowed queen. In Thebes, he learns of his father's demise and dreads wedding his mother (Knox et al. 75). What he does not know is that fate has him exactly where it wants him to be. His fear is powerful enough to steer him to Thebes, where unknowing to him, he is about to fulfill the very prophesy he seeks to outplay. By this understanding, a conclusion can be made that even with the illusion of being in control, fate still held the cards to Oedipus' destiny.

Fate's Control and Oedipus's Ignorance

Human nature is the cause of this tragedy and not fate. This dire theme of free will versus fate drives the plot of Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Before Oedipus is born, his parents, Laius and Jocasta, receive word that their son will be their undoing (Nassar 147). He will grow up to marry Jocasta and kill Laius. The only plausible way to refute this terrible hand by fate is to dispose of their infant son before he grows to fulfill this prophecy. They discard the boy as an infant, but the future is vigilant, sending a shepherd who comes and saves the child. It is Jocasta and Laius' free will that drives them to do this heinous act. They crave continuity for their marriage and Laius' life and are thus compelled to such extremes (Nassar 148). Fate triumphs, letting Oedipus live into a king in Corinth. Fate wills him into a grown man and even drives him back to his parents to fulfill what is said about them as a family-placing all this aside, arguing that Oedipus' ignorance of the prophecy itself is what causes this destruction and not fate itself. He leaves Corinth, the house of his parents, Merope and Polybus, who unknown to him, are his foster parents, and travels to Thebes (Nassaar 148). To him, putting as much land as possible between him and his beloved kin is the best way to fight against the prophecy. Oedipus employs his free-will and intuition to go away, thinking he is riding away from fate's terrible face. It is his lack of information over what was said, and who is who that eventually results in his deeds. Even after killing Laius, he is still beset with human nature that makes him proud of his skill in finding the man's killer (Nassar 149). He is relentless in searching for this killer, not knowing this is fate's way of closing in on him. His anger, yet another depiction of human nature, flairs when in dealing with Tiresias, he loses himself because she does not wish to reveal the identity of the murderer. His ignorance is brought to light here; he does not know that the deeper he digs, the quicker he is telling his doom (Nassar 149). It is this same ignorance that made the shepherd who saved him save him. And it is this same ignorance that now costs him his parents and inevitably his life as a king. When he finds out he has murdered his father and married his mother, he is beset with such grief and depression that lead him to blind himself and get exiled from Thebes.

Conclusion

The battle between free will and fate is as old as time itself. Sophocles' Oedipus the King, tackles it best, presenting to us a compelling character that is not only flawed but seeks to break the mold of the time by not conforming to what has been set for him. Sophocles' list in this tale is not to justify the decisions of the gods, but to show the importance of having an independent mind and what prices are to be paid for such. Oedipus wanted to avoid his lot by traveling away from Corinth. In his ignorance, he returned to his parents to fulfill the very thing he sought to outrun. His actions are driven by his wiles and faults as a man, yes, but it would be foolish not to acknowledge how much power fate has over his actions. His nature as a man is what eventually provokes fate into ending his legacy.

References

Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah. "The tragic hero of the post-classical Renaissance." Available at SSRN 1725201 (2010).20-50.

Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah, Kwaku Ahenkora, and Adwoah S. Amankwah. "The tragic hero of the classical period." English Language and Literature Studies 2.3 (2012): 10-32.

Adade-Yeboah, Asuamah, and Edward Owusu. "The tragic hero of the modern period-the the African concept." English Language and Literature Studies 3.4 (2013): 37-44.

Knox, Bernard, and Sophocles, Bloom. "Introduction to Oedipus the King." Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations (2006): 71-75.

Nassar, Christopher S. "Tampering with the future: Apollo's prophecy in Sophocles Oedipus, the king." Q: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 26.3 (2013): 147-149.