The Power of Fate in Oedipus The King

“Oedipus the King” written by Sophocles is an Ancient Greek play that suggests that fate cannot be altered. Within the play, Sophocles uses the tragic hero Oedipus to prove that no matter what, fate will always be destined. Greek Playwright, Sophocles used themes to portray morals and discovered more about the culture that influenced him to change the life of many people.

While reading “Oedipus the King,” the readers can visualize through the theme and symbolism that this play is about trying to change fate.

At the beginning of the play on line 161 Oedipus states, “I will bring this to light again.” Oedipus is trying to get justice for the prior king, Laius. Considering this statement is at the very beginning of the play, the readers don’t quite understand what is going on here. Oedipus is blind to what is happening. Later in the play, Oedipus’ reveals his fate on line 960 “…my fate was to be yoked in marriage with my mother and kill my father…” Throughout the rest of the play, he tries to change his fate, which doesn’t go the way he expects.

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Oedipus even concludes that he had outsmarted his fate on line 1088, “They prophesied that I should kill my father! But he’s dead… and I stand here who never laid a hand on a spear against him..” He didn’t quite understand that there is no way that he could change his fate, which he soon finds out. Closer to the end of the play, he figures out that King Laius was his father and his wife is his mother.

Oedipus the King “was first performed around 429B.C.” (lecture notes) During this time period, they mostly focused on tragedies. Greek Tragedy influenced Sophocles when writing Oedipus the King. To be presented at the festival of Dionysus, the plays would have to be a Greek Tragedy. (lecture notes) Within a Greek Tragedy, there will always be a tragic hero. With a tragic hero, comes a tragic flaw. In line 662 Oedipus says, “… he would not have said that I killed Laius.” This shows one of Oedipus’ tragic flaws which is his excessive pride.

Beginning in line 1724 the chorus says “… not a citizen who did not look with envy on his lot—see him now and see the breakers of misfortune swallow him!” While reading this, I have figured out that we as human beings only want our fate to go the way we want. This was the same for Oedipus. Once he figured out what his fate was, he tried to completely turn it around. We want it to go our way, but that’s not how fate works. Herdsman states on line 1361 “If you’re the man he says you are, you’re bred to misery.” Here the reader sees, that even after Oedipus tried his hardest to change the road of his fate, he could not. Either way, he was still going to kill his father and marry his mother.

Oedipus states at the beginning of the story on line 175 that “God will decide whether we prosper or remain in sorrow.” This quote has a pretty big meaning behind it. The quote is saying that God will be the only one that decides what happens. This is where fate plays in, God will be the only one to decide a person’s fate and he will be the only one that can change it. I can use what I learned from this story by remembering that everything happens for a reason. Everything I come across throughout my life is because it is apart of my fate.
“Oedipus the King” was completely blind to what was going on around him. He thought he could change the path of his life. Sophocles explained that Oedipus still met his final fate, used his influence of Greek Tragedy, and influenced many in the process.