Oedipus The King - Sophocles (425 B.C.) - The Dramatic Power of Fate

Extract

[...] In the play Oedipus The King (425 B.C.) by Sophocles (496-406 B.C.), Oedipus is a perfect tragic hero, victim of his fate. As the play starts, the citizens of Thebes beg their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that threatens to destroy the city. Creon, Oedipus's brother-in-law, announces that the oracle instructs them to find the murderer of Laius who was king of Thebes before Oedipus. Only this will end the plague. A blind prophet, Tiresias, accuses Oedipus of killing Laius. [...]

[...] The second prediction, made to the son, influences him to turn away from Corinth towards Thebes and inspires in him a fear which he always carries with him, which he must constantly dominate if he is to live as other men do (Knox 40). The prediction was made twice. Oedipus's long agony reaches the maximum at the end of the play. Indeed, after so much hope, Oedipus finally discovers that the fate he thought he had escaped forever catches up with him. Conclusion In Oedipus The King, Sophocles shows how men unknowingly run into fate with their own free will. Oedipus is warned by Apollo and other characters in the play of his fate but all his acts are his own. [...]

[...] At this point, Oedipus's ignorance pushes him in the hands of fate. His determination to find the truth does not help him to avoid his fate ‘what happens is far more terrifying because it is inevitable' (Reinhardt 68). In fact, Oedipus's actions, during the play, put him on the way to his downfall. III. The powerful strength of fate The powerful strength of fate throws Oedipus in a deep suffering. In scene IV, this is the climax of the play. [...]

[...] Now the problem of the play is not only who kill Laius but also what can people know of one another and how can't they knows it. The queen thought she escaped her fate years ago. When warned by the oracle that her son will kill his father, Jocasta and King Laius left the baby, Oedipus, in the mountains to die. Unfortunately, she could not avoid her fate and devastated she killed herself, ‘and there we saw her hanging body swaying from the cruel cord she had noosed about her neck' (Sophocles 1288). [...]

[...] New York: Chelsea House Publishers Knox, Bernard. Sophocles Tragic Hero And His Time. New York/Norton & Cie Reinhardt, Karl. Illusion and Truth In Oedipus. San Diego, CA: The Greenhaven Press Sophocles. Oedipus The King. New York: The Modern Library Vernant, J.P. Ambiguity And Reversal On The Enigmatic Structure Of Oedipus. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. [...]