Oedipus Rex2
In Sophocles's play "Oedipus Rex" Oedipus Even though "fate" seems to determine Oedipus' life, . he does infact have a free will. His choices brought the prophecy to life. Only his decisions (not influenced by anybody) he made. Of course those decisions were in side of the limits set by fate. When Oedipus heard a prophesy that his going to kill his father and sleep with his mother he ran away, even when he new there were suspicions of him being the real son of his parents. There some lines from the play: "...There was a man dining with us one day who had too much wine and man shouted at me-half drunk and shouting that I was not rightly called my father's son. ... Without my parent's knowledge, I went to Delphi, but Apollo did not say what I had gone to hear. Instead, he answered questions I had not asked and told of horror and misery beyond believe - how I would know my mothers bad ... and cause the death of my own father." The prophecy drove the Oedipus away from home; the terror of the predictions was too much to live with. Oedipus tried everything not to meet the prophecy, and still when he came to Thebes and became a king Oedipus married an older lady. It was his choice, even when he knew there was a danger of him to know mo
Thus even though he had killed his father he would have never become king of Thebes and laid with his mother. In addition, if Oedipus had had the courage but not the intelligence the Spinx would have killed him for answering the riddle incorrectly. Secon! The tragic hero Oedipus emerges as anything but a social person. Also in answering the riddle Oedipus inevitable brought about his own tragic ending by a horrible discovery. In fact, if we examine his "quest for identity", it becomes apparent that the sequence of events are quite coincidental. Oedipus is told by the gods to find the killer of Laius. Being content and suited with what he knew of himself would have saved Oedipus and his children/siblings much agony. Sophocles used this to characterized Oedipus as a tragic man for he came about his tragic discovery not because of an evil act or an evil trait but because of the person he was. In the bliss of ignorance, much pain and difficulty is averted. In the context of his own time, this was meant to imply that life must be examined and reflected upon, known and discovered by each individual philosopher to better enrich life for all. The question which was addressed, that of the value of the examined life, can be answered. Many years later after bearing children with Jocasta a plague kills many of the inhabitants of Thebes. As a child man crawls on his hands and knees this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers. He doesn't realize the personal consequences his hunt will have for him, and his loyalty to the truth is based on his ignorance of it. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus.
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