Fate
against Freewill
In the play, Oedipus
certainly possessed attitude of trusting in destiny and fate more than on
himself and his actions. His entire
life incidents, from leaving Corinth, killing his own father, getting throned as the king of Thebes, to marrying his own mother was based on his fear
of what he was destined to do.
Line 1188 which says, "Loxias once said that
it was my fate that I would marry my own mother and shed my father’s blood with
my own hand. That’s why, many many years ago, I left my home in Corinth", which explains that just because of a prophecy, that said that he would commit
dreadful sins in his life, Oedipus made a huge decision of leaving his own
country, while, on the other hand, he always possessed option to keep himself
away from these sins just by practicing self control. Here, he chose fate
against freewill. Similarly, when the messenger said that his father, the king
of Corinth was dead, he seemed to be happier that the prophecy did not act on
him, rather than to mourn for the incident. (line 1170-1176) Furthermore, because
he feared that his mother, the queen of Corinth, was still alive, he denied going
to Corinth for his father’s funeral. These shows how strong believer of destiny
he was, who did not even have courage to go to attain his father’s funeral
because of the fear of his fate which could have easily been outcasted by his
action.
Undoubtedly, Oedipus
had been placed in a difficult situation by fate; however, he always had a
choice to make it better. For example, killing an old man who happened to get into
his seat or leaving his own kingdom by fearing the future had nothing to do
with his fate. It was his “self-
decision” which happened to bring him closer to what he was destined to do. If he had not killed Laius on the way or not
left the kingdom just by believing in the prophecy, his life would have been
much easier. However, his arrogance and stubbornness always won his self
conduct. Line 1470, by the messenger,
which states, “vilest things, brought on by choice, not accident”,
explains that the choices Oedipus made were the real reasons for his downfall
and not his destiny. Nevertheless,
Oedipus always believed that his ill luck brought him into bizarre situations.
When the messenger says that the boy he saved was actually Oedipus, he said “Ah,
my old misfortune.” Line 1231, by which it is clear that even though the actual
reason for all the mishaps was the choices he made, he believed it was his
destiny that was responsible.
Thus, Oedipus always
kept his destiny in the first place and not his freewill, which placed him in abject
situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment