Free Will in Oedipus the King Essay -- Sophocles Oedipus Rex Essays

Free Will in Oedipus the KingOedipus the King by Sophocles is the story of a man who was apprenticed to kill his father and marry his mother. The story continues in the tradition of pure Greek plays, which were based upon the Greeks beliefs at the time. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods decided what would ultimately slip by to each and every person. Since those gods destined Oedipus to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus deportment was definitely fated. However, the gods only decided where Oedipus life would eventually introduce they neer planned the route he would take to get there. All the decisions that Oedipus do in order to fulfill his destiny, and the decisions he made after the fact, were of his take in free will, and were by and large shaped by his mien. Probably the most applicable illustrations of the exercise of free will are in the events which lead up to the play and which fulfill Oedipus vaticination. When Laius and Jocasta hear of their n ewborn sons fate, their head start instinct is to kill Baby Oedipus. But they cannot do the deed immediately they instead make the choice to pin his feet together and leave him on a mountainside. This turns out not to be the best choice for them, and at least it was a choice. Perhaps the most barefaced example of free will is in the murder of Laius and his mennot so much the murders themselves but the circumstances surrounding the murders. This is how Oedipus describes the incident to Jocasta Making my representation toward this triple crossroad I began to see a herald, then a brace of colts drawing a wagon, and mounted on the bencha man, just as youve described him, coming face-to-face, and the one in the lead and the old man himself were about to thrust me off the road tool force a... ...is eyes out and Jocasta would hang herself. The people involved were all responsible for their actions. Technically, everything that happened in the play was outside the realm of the prophec y since the prophecy was fulfilled before the story even started, so therefore, there is no fate in Oedipus the King Free will is abound in Oedipus the King any character who makes a decision of their own arrangement is a testament to that. Even Oedipus, whose life was fated from the start, made many an(prenominal) decisions, ranging from how to fulfill his destiny to how to punish himself after finding out he had indeed murdered his father and married his mother, and most of which were shaped largely by his personality. WORKS CITEDSophocles. Oedipus the King. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 2002. 1289-1331.