AN ESSAY ON FREE WILL VERSUS FATE IN OEDIPUS REX

In Greek Mythology, as well as in Ancient Greece, it was highly thought that fate was the strongest force there was; and one single fact always held true to them: fate was inevitable and the victim couldn’t do anything to stop it from becoming true. Considering what has just been said, one of the most famous and strongest examples of this portrayal of fate is Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex. The protagonist, Oedipus, hears a rumour that he is not the real son of the King and Queen; confused, he asks the Oracle if that was true, to which the Oracle responds that he would kill his father and marry his mother after he became of age. Oedipus, believing his adoptive parents are his real ones, tries to escape the prophecy by any means necessary, doing the impossible to avoid it. As a result, the way he reacts does not only end up fulfilling the prophecy, but also shaped the way he lived it until it became true. With this it can be said that in Oedipus Rex, Sophocles illustrates how short temper, poor judgement, and the belief of fate results in tragedy.

Firstly, the play depicts the contrasting themes of fate and free will by the usage of dialogue, plot and character ultimately to focus on how even though people have free will and can act on it however they want, fate is stronger and inevitable. 

 One of the things that makes a good research paper is to, before anything else, define and give a context to the theme that is going to be talked about. Here we need to talk about fate in general terms, to the ancient Greeks. To them it was one of the three goddesses known as the Moirai, that determined each person's destiny, lifespan and share of misery. They are known as Clotho (the spinner), Lachesis (The Allotter) and Atropos (the Inflexible), who spinned, distributed and cut human fate represented as a thread (Britannica, 2024)1. While the Fates predestined the actions of humans, the Greeks believed that they still had free will and in the afterlife they would be judged by how they reacted to what the Fates had spun for them in contrast to what they had done while they were alive (Williams). 

As for plot, Sophocles follows the classical style of tragedy, which contains six main elements within a plot, which are: the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action and finally, the catastrophe. 

Here are certain lines from Oedipus Rex that will support the first argument and focus on what it is trying to be said through dialogue and character. “At a banquet a man overwhelmed by drink called me a fraud in whom I claimed for my father. That day I tried to hold in my anger, but the next day I went home and asked my mother and father, and they angrily treated the insult as the speech of a drunkard (Sophocles, 38).” In this first line, Sophocles presents us with a protagonist (character) that has anger issues, a bad trait that will be part and become one of the fall downs of Oedipus. This trait will be a characteristic the protagonist will assume in the play, and will shape the way towards the fulfilment of the prophecy. Paying more attention to detail, it can be said it is a hint of free will in Oedipus Rex, since Oedipus can choose what attitude to take upon the path that has been established by fate. In that same line, the following quotes goes one step further depicting what we know as free will. “If I must flee, then in my flight I may neither see my own kin nor step inside my fatherland, or I must take my mother in marriage and kill my father Polybus, who raised and sired me (Sophocles, 39).” 

In these last lines it can be seen that Oedipus has the option to choose what to do, and what he chooses to flee Corinth, since he blindly believes the prophecy, thinking it will come true if he stays. It is another characteristic of his that shapes his path towards the inevitable fulfilment of fate. In these lines of the play, Oedipus believes that even after his adoptive parents had explained to him that what he was told was only the words of a drunkard, he still decides to flee from Corinth in an attempt to avoid the prophecy. However, even when he tries to escape from it, the prophecy that was told against him still came true. “I killed them all. But if that stranger had some connection with Laius, who would be more wretched than this man you see (Sophocles. 38)?” 

It can be concluded, in this first example, that fate in Ancient Greece, personalised by Clothho, Lachesis and Atropo who spin and cut the thread of human fate, is seen as one of the strongest forces there are, which cannot be escaped. But, this being said, the path towards that fate that has been chosen, is what differs from person to person, since it is the attitude they take that changes the way they live through it. Even if all this can be claimed as general knowledge, it is also something that Sophocles makes sure to highlight on his play through usage of dialogue, plot and character, like it could be seen in the lines of the plot that were quoted.  

Moreover, and taking into consideration the first argument, it can also be said that people’s actions, in this case Oedipus’s, shape the way the future is going to become true, ultimately shaping the arrival to their fate. By this, it can be established that, that in Ancient Greek Mythology, fate is stronger than free will; the last one has the capacity to shape the way the person lives and finally arrives to the unavoidable prophecy of fate. 

There are three major key attitudes or characteristics of the protagonist that shaped the path towards the fulfilment of the prophecy: (1) the blind belief in fate, and how fate  is inescapable and inevitable; (2) his short temper; and (3) his poor judgement. 

Rewarding his blind belief in fate, the actions by Oedipus throughout this play can be considered as being fatalistic: the belief “that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable in people’s lives; no matter what people do, the end result will be the same,” but also could be considered as being deterministic: “the belief that all action and events result from past action or events (Wong).” The fact that Oedipus’s prophecy was told to Laius by the servants of Apollo and to Oedipus by the Oracle, and how Oedipus’s attitude towards the blind belief of what was said to him would come true if he didn’t act, a wrong belief that highlights another element: that “The Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of fate; its tragic effect depends on the conflict between the all-powerful will of the gods and the vain efforts of human beings threatened with disaster; resignation to the divine will, and the perception of one's own impotence (...)” (Freud,1900) highlights the first attitude of Oedipus: his resignation to the divine will. 

Now, an instance when Oedipus shows actions of short temper are when he insults Tiresias while Oedipus was trying to find out what he knew. “You worst of wicked men! You would anger a stone! Will you reveal nothing, but instead show yourself unmovable and impractical?” “You have found fault with my anger, but your own, living within you, did not see, but blamed me (Oedipus, 22).” As a result from Oedipus insulting Tiresias, Tiresias ends up telling Oedipus that he is the one who killed Laius. “Abide by that decree you made earlier, and from this day address neither these men here nor me, since you are the unholy polluter of this land.” “I say that you slew the man whose slayer you seek (Oedipus, 23).” 

One of the instances when Oedipus shows poor judgment is when he impulsively blinds himself after he finds out the truth of his wife being his mother as he cannot bear to look at his children from which came from his mother. “For he removed from her garment the golden brooches which she was wearing; he lifted them and struck the sockets of his own eyes, shouting that they would not see either the evils he had suffered or the evils he had done, now only in darkness could they see those whom they must not see, in darkness could they mistake those whom they wanted to recognize.” “At once his bloody eyeballs moistened his cheeks. In torrent together flowed the drops of blood; all at once a dark storm of blood like hail rained down (Oedipus, 56).” 

For the second argument, it can be concluded that in these instances of Oedipus acting on the belief of fate, poor judgement and short temper, shows how in Greek Mythology, you still have free will, despite everything; but, that the components, meaning the actions, attitudes and beliefs, that make up free will, even if they are existent and can vary from person to person, they are only there to affect and determine the way in which the path towards the fulfilment of fate will be. In Oedipus' case, with the three of his key attitudes and/or beliefs, those make the perfect recipe for disaster; a theme we are going to go in depth further in the next paragraph.  

Lastly, while it has been established that free will and the attitude Oedipus took to avoid fate will change the path to the fulfilment of the prophecy, fate is still inevitable; so, it can be said that the play focuses on how all these elements will result in inevitable tragedy; this being a key theme on Ancient Greece works of literature.  

In the first place, if we want to talk about tragedy, we have to know what it is and where it's from. “Aristotle defined tragedy as a morally ambiguous genre in which a noble hero goes from good fortune to bad.” In this sense, the hero in the book or play cannot be “totally evil or purely good, but instead,” they must be between those opposites, and their misfortune must be brought by a fatal flaw, which for Oedipus, is his poor judgement and short temper (Bude). 

What’s more, we can repeat a quote that was said before, but now to be read with another perspective; the perspective of tragedy. On Freud, from The Interpretation of Dreams, ch. 5 there is a quote that not only affirms and confirms our third argument, but also the entire thesis, that reads: “The Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of fate; its tragic effect depends on the conflict between the all-powerful will of the gods and the vain efforts of human beings threatened with disaster; resignation to the divine will, and the perception of one's own impotence is the lesson which the deeply moved spectator is supposed to learn from the tragedy.” (Freud, 1900)12. 

On top of that, it is said that Oedipus Rex is a true tragedy due to the fact that Sophocles adhered to the principle of three unities, which in drama, derived by French classicists from Aristotle’s Poetics, unities require a play to have a single action (unity of action) occurring on a single place (unity of place) within a single day (unity of time). In this case, the authors of this research paper believe the first unity would be Oedipus trying to escape from the prophecy; the second unity would be the city-state of Thebes in ancient Greece; and the third one would be that the fall of the protagonist takes place over in a single day. Furthermore, like it was said in the first argument, Sophocles follows the classical style of tragedy, which contains six main elements within a plot, which are: the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action and finally, the catastrophe. 

In conclusion, as was advanced throughout the work, Sophocles used several tools such as character, plot and dialogue, to, first of all, emphasise that although free will exists, its counterpart, fate, is more powerful and inevitable. Secondly, that -free will- will only have the power to shape the path towards the fulfilment of fate, but, once again, this last one is always remaining inevitable and more powerful, since we are talking about something human that is born from man, with something divine, born from the gods. Then, in coherence with what has just been said, the human element cannot fight and win against the divine, and since what we have been saying turns out to be the truth of ancient Greece, this is that free will exists but only to determine the experience of the path to fate –and in the case of Oedipus, this is his resignation to divine power or blindly belief in fate, his poor judgement and his short temper– it is that Sophocles creates a truly perfect situation which only possible end is to end in tragedy.

Essay by Mila and Ali.