Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus
"What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity." These words marked by one of the great philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer, ring true to even before his time. The infamous Sophoclean tragedies Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus of Greek poetry by far exemplify the concept of fate in its entirety as one of the most powerful roles in life. As in most other cases, the order of destiny and fate come so close to one another, it is hard to imagine one without the other. When characters stubble upon their fate, it is without utmost certainty that they will in one way or another tries to change their course of action and test the limits of in which destiny has set. Destiny itself is defined as an inalterable life path where all other paths lead regardless of choice; fate is defined as an event or course of events that will inevitably happen in the future. As both plays evolve, the importance of not only fate and destiny play a major significance in the outcomes of the main character, Oedipus, the King of Thebes, nevertheless as do blindness, for it is yet added to his list of enemies. Through his determination of testing fate, his heroic mental strength, his omnipotent rule over Thebes, and even to his unforeseen vengef
ul suffering, Oedipus alone led to his own demise. Ironically, however, through physical blindness of his own does he gain the spiritual bliss that could have salvaged his life from the very beginning. This amalgamation of fate and blindness first heavily emerge in Oedipus Rex, to only put Oedipus to rest in Oedipus in Colonus; both plays when assimilated, however, truly display the effectiveness of fate and blindness as forces or nature that one cannot escape from nor alter. To begin, in Oedipus Rex, there is no doubt that Oedipus is born with a terrible prophecy to kill his own father and marry his mother. At the outset, this story revolves around two different attempts to change the course of fate. The first attempt endeavor would be that of Jocasta and Laius, Oedipus's mother and true father, having their baby son sent to be killed after hearing an oracle predict their future, "Once long ago there came to Laius from ... an oracle, / Which said that fate would make him meet his end/ Through a son, a son of his (Laius) and mine (Jocasta). (Sophocles 44) " Jocasta orders to have her son killed only to find him restored to life and married to her. The second strive to alter one's destiny is made by Oedipus for when he himself is aware of his destiny that the oracle has predicted for him. In an attempt to deny his fate, he runs away from who he is and yet ironically ends up in the homeland of his origins performing exactly what he fled from. One thing that is Oedipus should be greatly noted for his even though he put blame on others to what he in fact caused, he willingly accepted his the truth once proven and accepted responsibility for his actions. In fact, he punished himself by taking away his physical sight, " 'You
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1174
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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