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 energize accomplished, they have not controlled fate. Fate isuncontrollable. Much like betting on a sure thing and intimate in the back ofyour mind that there argon infinite factors in the outcome--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 sentiment of self-fulfilled destiny until then, men turned toprophets and oracles. In the play Oedipus, by Sophocles, there was a ongoingsynergy between fate and knowledge that was constantly rejected. Oedipus, the of import character, struggled to dominate his own destiny, but ironically fell backinto his bizarre misfortune that was in the end, inevitable.     Misfortune, monstrous realities, deception all a result of Oedipus knowin gtoo much 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 still hot and he was married to a wo earthly concern not even related to his mother, he would notbear the offspring that men would shudder to look upon. It was the abstract ofirony for Oedipus to know his fate, and try 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 daytime but thenext day went to my father and my mother and que stioned them. They wereindignant at the taunt and that comforted me--and yet the mans wordsrankled...I sought where I might escape those ill-famed 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