Thesis: Oedipus and his birth parents exercise free will in trying to avoid fate, which ultimately leads to their downfall.
The Greeks believed that people could not escape fate. However, they also knew that hubris was most people's hamartia, or fatal flaw, and hubris sometimes causes people to feel above the law, which leads them to using their free will.
At birth, Oedipus's parents were told of a prophesy that Oedipus would grow up to murder his...
Thesis: Oedipus and his birth parents exercise free will in trying to avoid fate, which ultimately leads to their downfall.
The Greeks believed that people could not escape fate. However, they also knew that hubris was most people's hamartia, or fatal flaw, and hubris sometimes causes people to feel above the law, which leads them to using their free will.
At birth, Oedipus's parents were told of a prophesy that Oedipus would grow up to murder his father, Laius, and marry his mother, Jocasta. Horrified and scared, his parents exercise their free will and try to avoid this prophesy by sending Oedipus with a shepherd to be killed in infancy. Instead of leaving Oedipus on Mount Cithaeron hung on a tree by his riveted feet, the shepherd pitied the boy and gave him to the king and queen of the neighboring kingdom of Corinth.
Years later, as a teen, Oedipus learns of the prophesy from a drunkard, and thinking that his adopted parents are his real parents, he uses his free will in order to escape his fate, just as his birth parents had done, and leaves Corinth. On his way to finding a life away from his adoptive parents, Oedipus encounters his father, Laius, and kills him in a fit of road rage not knowing that he is his father. Circumstances then lead him to save the kingdom of Thebes, and he wins the hand of the queen, his mother, Jocasta. Before he is exiled for murdering the king, Oedipus's uncle/brother-in-law says to him, "It is not your place to decide; the power you had has not remained with you," meaning that the fate the gods have decided for you supersedes your free will.
In Oedipus's case, his fate was prophesized because it was destined to happen. It was not destined to happen because it was prophesized. The tragedy happened because Jocasta's, Laius's, and Oedipus's hubris made it happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment