Free Will and Oedipus Rex

The play Oedipus by Sophocles is a play whose focus is the interplay between fate and free will. The story basically goes like this: Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother as he learned from the Oracle at Delphi. So, Oedipus does everything to escape-he runs from his own land and starts his life over. However, Oedipus is a character that clearly demonstrates that no matter how much free will men assert, fate has already written the events of one's life. Oedipus himself does everything to avoid the various prophecies made about him, but in the end, is a victim of fate.

The first example of fate is that Oedipus sends Creon to the temple of Apollo to find out how to get rid of the plague of Thebes. This is how he learns of his own fate as well. "I sent Meoceus son of Creon , Jocasta's brother, to Apollo, that he might learn there by what act or word I could save this city" (70-74). Creon then sends for Tiresius. Against his will and after much discussion, he reveals the fate of Oedipus. He tells Oedipus that he is the murderer of the king and that by the end of the day, he will become a blind beggar and he will find out that he is both the son and husband of his own wife, and the brother and father to his own children. As Tiresias says, "I say you are the murderer of the king whose murderer you seek" (362). Again Tiresias says, "I say that with those you love best you live in foulest shame unconsciously and do not see where you are in calamity" (366-368). He is telling Oedipus of his fate. Oedipus cannot accept his fate even at this point.