Oedipus The King: The Tragedy of Fate

Oedipus could hardly deserve his fate at birth that he would murder his father and marry his mother. First of all, it is the actions of his parents that caused his fate. His birth parents sought the advice of the Delphi Oracle, who warns that they should not have any children because Laius’ son would be fated to kill his father and marry his

mother. When the boy is born, Laius is overcome with terror

when he remembers the oracle’s prophesy and gets rid of him. He was a good-natured person and compassionate king. Even more importantly, his fate was determined before his birth, as fates are by definition in Greek tragedy and myth, and obviously cannot be deserving of it.

Pride and ignorance turn out to be Oedipus’ tragic flaws that lead to his downfall. Due to his pride or rather arrogance, he attempts to raise

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He punishes himself in this way because he felt he was blind to his actions, and his eyes were of no use in helping him see what he was doing or that the questioning would bring him only misery. This prophecy, as warned by the oracle of Apollo at Delphi was unconditional and inevitably would come to pass, no matter what he may have done to avoid it. Oedipus is made to suffer greatly for sins he had no way of avoiding. Man was free to choose and was ultimately held responsible for his own actions. Yet he believed that he had succeeded in changing his fate when he left Corinth. Oedipus’ ignorance causes him to unwittingly curse himself in trying to impose justice upon the murderer. This paradox, in which the knowledge of his true birth parents will not only be his downfall but also eradicates the person he thought he was, reveals that his entire life was a sham and he would have been better off if he had never been born. That fate is now proved/shown to be inevitable. This caused him to take actions, like leave Corinth, which ultimately and inevitably lead toward him fulfilling the prophecy and his fate. Clearly his punishment exceeds the crime. This becomes even more important when out of justice he seeks the man that killed King Laius and curses that man. himself to the level of the gods by trying to escape his fate, which is one of the sins against the gods. Therefore the last act of destruction was caused by Oedipus' free will, but

his tragic fate came about because of the nature of the cosmic order (that every misdeed must be balanced out) and role of the gods in human affairs. Oedipus was destined from birth to someday marry his mother and to murder his father.

Oedipus’ ignorance also leads him to cause his own downfall.

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Approximate Word count = 845
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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