Fate or Character: Who Is Responsible in the Oedipus
Rex by Sophocles?
Significant Events Already Decided
A big part of Oedipus
Rex is
a tragedy of fate. The important parts of the play were
planned ahead of time by fate or the gods. People seem pretty useless when it
comes to the things that determine their fate. People told King Laius that his
son with Jocasta would kill him. Laius did everything he could to make this
happen. Shortly after Jocasta gave birth to a son, Laius chained him up and
gave him to a reliable servant with clear orders that the child should be left
out in the open on Mt. Cithaeron to die. Under those conditions, no child could
have lived. But the servant felt sorry for the child and gave him to a
Corinthian shepherd. The shepherd then gave the kid to the Corinthian king. The
child grew up to be the son of Polybus and Merope, who were King and Queen of
Corinth. He then killed his real father, Laius. Of course, the son killed his
father without knowing who the real victim was. But in the case of Laius,
Apollo's oracle came true, even though he and his wife, Jocasta, did the
unthinkable and killed their own child to avoid what the oracle said would
happen.
Oedipus Has Failed in His Attempts to Avoid His Fate
The son that Laius had,
Oedipus, also had to accept the fate that Apollo's prophecy told him would
happen. The prophet told Oedipus that he would kill his own father and marry
his own mother. Like his parents, Oedipus did everything he could to avoid a
terrible fate. Leaving Corinth, he vowed to never see his supposed father and
mother again as long as they were alive. He got lost and ended up in Thebes,
where people were having a very bad time. At the point where three roads met,
an unknown visitor killed King Laius. The city was being controlled by the
terrifying Sphinx, who was causing a lot of damage because no one could figure
out the puzzle she had set and presented. The monster was killed when Oedipus
figured out the puzzle. Oedipus was given Laius's widow as a wife and was
happily welcomed as king by the people of the city as a prize for his service.
Because of this, he killed his father and married his mother without knowing
who their real parents were. Not only did he do these terrible things without
meaning to, but they happened because he was trying to avoid the terrible fate
that the oracle at Delphi had told him about.
Characters Who Cannot Control Their Own Fate
It is clear, then, that
the terrible things that happen in the lives of Laius, Oedipus, and Jocasta are
caused by a strange supernatural force that can be called Apollo, fate, or
destiny. This mysterious power had already planned for bad things to happen in
these people's lives. These people are even told ahead of time that some
shocking things will happen to them. These people do everything they can think
of to stop these things from happening, but everything ends up just the way the
oracles said it would. How can we say that the characters are responsible for
the terrible things that happen? Even though Oedipus is the one who suffers the
most in the play, he has done nothing to deserve what happens to him. Laius and
Jocasta also don't deserve what happens to them. What makes Oedipus good and
smart? For now, though, let us look more closely at Oedipus, the sad hero of
the play. In his writings, Aristotle said that the tragic hero is a man who is
respected and successful but ends up in bad luck because of a flaw. Now, there
is no question at all that Oedipus is a good person. He is a good leader, a
father to his people, an honest and good manager, and a very smart person. He
cares more about the people of the state than he does about himself. People see
him as their rescuer. He is loved and praised by them. He is also a real holy
man who follows the rules: he trusts oracles, values family, and hates being
dirty. The beginning of the play does make us think that Oedipus would make a
great king. We really can't stand the thought of this man having to go through
what he does.
Character Flaws of Oedipus
Oedipus is not a perfect
man or even a perfect king. He does have a hamartia, which is a flaw in his
character that makes the gods angry with him. He has a short fuse, makes snap
decisions, gets angry quickly, and is sometimes even arbitrary. At first, he
treats Teiresias with respect, but he loses it quickly and insults the prophet,
accusing both him and Creon of betrayal. He gave Creon the death sentence, but
later he took it back, which shows how hasty and arbitrary he was. In fact,
Oedipus acts very suspicious of his friends in the two scenes with Teiresias
and Creon. He jumps to conclusions too quickly and is very angry. He loses all
control very quickly when he faces resistance or when he thinks he does.
Because of his power and position, he seems to be turning into a tyrant. That's
why this play is also known as Oedipus Tyrannus. He needs to be reminded by
Creon that the city doesn't just belong to him. "I do not always want to
be master of everything," he says, even when he is blind. All of this
proves that Oedipus is not a man with perfect character, no flaws at all, and a
person who embodies all the values. One of his big problems is that he is too
proud of how smart he is. His natural sense of pride seems to have grown even
stronger after he solved the Sphinx's puzzle. No prophet or seer found the
answer. It is Oedipus's boast, pride, and faith in himself that make him feel
almost better than the gods. Even his lack of piety says something about him.
As Jocasta influences him, he starts to doubt the oracles. This shows that he
is lacking in real knowledge, which is a key trait of someone who is about to
become an evil tyrant.
Unavoidable: The Oracle's Predictions
The question that comes
up, though, is what these flaws in Oedipus' character have to do with his sad
ending. One could argue that he would not have killed his father if he had not
been so angry. He might not have gotten into a fight on the road. In the same
way, he might not have married a woman who was old enough to be his mother if
he had been a little more careful. In the end, he wasn't forced to get into a
fight on his trip or get married to Jocasta. Because of this, both killing his
father and marrying his mother can be seen as character flaws on his part. At
the same time, it's important to note that the oracles' predictions were
impossible to avoid. What the prophet said would happen will happen in the end.
Even if Oedipus had taken the measures that were mentioned above, the prophecy
would still come true. It didn't say that Oedipus would kill his father and
marry his mother if he did this or that. The oracle's statement was general.
Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother; that's all the prophet
said. It was certain that what the oracle said would happen.
As Oedipus acts on stage, he is not a puppet but a free agent.
It would look like Oedipus is just a puppet if he were the innocent victim of a
fate he can't escape. In that case, the play turns into a tragedy of fate that
takes away people's freedom. But that point of view would also be wrong. Some
people think that Sophocles has mostly shown Oedipus as a free person because
he doesn't want to see him as a puppet. In neither Homer nor Sophocles does
the idea that God knows ahead of time about certain events mean that all human
acts are predetermined. In this play, the assistant makes it clear that
Oedipus's self-blinding was something he chose to do, as opposed to killing his
father and marrying his mother, which he did not choose to do. Some of
Oedipus's actions were predetermined by fate, but everything he does on stage,
from the beginning to the end, he does of his own free will. For example, he
condemns Teiresias and Creon; his conversation with Jocasta leads him to tell
her about his life and learn from her how Laius died; he continues his
investigation even though Jocasta and the Theban shepherd try to stop him; and
so on. What interests us about this play is how a man can freely choose, from
the best of intentions, to do a number of things that will ruin him. Even
though Oedipus could have let the plague happen on its own, he went to the
oracle because he felt bad for his people's pain. Once Apollo told him about
the murder of Laius, he could have chosen not to look into it, but his faith
and love of justice made him do so. He didn't have to force a hesitant Theban
shepherd to tell the truth, but he couldn't settle for a lie and wanted to
prove everything. Each of Teiresias, Jocasta, and the shepherd from Thebes
tried to stop Oedipus, but he was set on figuring out who his parents were.
Nobody, not even fate or the gods, told him that he had to find the truth, so
that's why he's in direct danger. It's even less likely that his own weakness
is what brought him down. Being strong and brave, loyal to Thebes, and
interested in telling the truth are what bring him down. We should think of him
as a free person in all of this. He also chose to blind himself and send
himself away, which are both free acts.
Fate and Character: Who Is Responsible?
What does that mean for
us? Even though there is proof that Oedipus was free to do most of the things
he did in the play, we can't forget that the worst things that happened in his
life—killing his father and getting married to his mother—had to happen. In
this case, you can't say that fate isn't to blame. However, Oedipus only finds
out about his mistakes or crimes because it is in his nature to do so. It's
this finding, which is because of who he is, that is the real tragedy. He would
have continued to live in blissful ignorance if he hadn't found out the truth.
There would have been no tragedy, no shock, no self-blinding, and no pain (as
long as Jocasta hadn't found out the truth either). But the murder and the
incest were planned ahead of time, and fate is to blame for them.
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