Oedipus: Fate Is Unavoidable :: Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

Oedipus Fate is Unavoidable     No matter what anyone tries, no matter what anyone does, no matter whatanyone believes they have accomplished, they have not controlled fate. Fate isuncontrollable. oft like betting on a sure liaison and knowing in the back ofyour mind that there are infinite factors in the kayoedcome--anything could happen.Its unfortunate that the people of Ancient Greece sanctioned the concept offate. In the Era of Enlightenment the idea of God-controlled fate was finallychallenged with the notion of self-fulfilled destiny until then, men rancid toprophets and oracles. In the play Oedipus, by Sophocles, there was a ongoingsynergy between fate and knowledge that was constantly rejected. Oedipus, themain character, struggled to dominate his own destiny, save ironically fell backinto his bizarre misfortune that was in the end, inevitable.     Misfortune, false realities, deception all a result of Oedipus knowingtoo oftentim es and at the same time too little of his true lot in life. Knowledge waswhat nurtured him into false pretenses. Knowledge was a false pretense. Byknowing that his parents were out of harms way, namely his, he knew that hisprophecy would not come true. He knew that as long as his father was stillalive and he was married to a woman not even related to his mother, he would notbear the offspring that men would shudder to look upon. It was the epitome ofirony for Oedipus to know his fate, and return to avoid it with the knowledgethat he had obtained "My father was Polybus of Corinth, my mother the DorianMerope, and I was held the foremost man in all that town until a thing happened--a thing to startle a man, though not to make him angry as it made me. We weresitting at the table, and a man who had drunk too much cried out that I was notmy fathers son--and I, though angry, restrained my anger for that day but thenext day went to my father and my mother and questioned them. They were angry at the taunt and that comforted me--and yet the mans wordsrankled...I sought where I might escape those infamous things--the doom that waslaid upon me."     When Oedipus fled from his parents, he started the chain reaction ofironic happenstance that would eventually direct him in a complete circle back