“Oedipus Rex” is a
tragedy of fate. The
crucial events in the play have been
pre-determined by fate or the gods. Man seems
helpless facing the circumstances which mould his destiny. King Laius was told that his own son by Jocasta would kill him. Laius did
everything possible to prevent such a disaster. Once Jocasta gave birth to a son, Laius had him chained and handed him over to a trustworthy servant with strict orders that the child be exposed on. Mt. Cithaeron and allowed to perish. But the servant, out of compassion, handed over the child to a Corinthian shepherd who passed him on to the Corinthian King. The child grew up as the son of the King and Queen of Corinth and later killed his true father, Laius, in complete ignorance. Apollo’s
oracle was fulfilled even though Laius and Jocasta took the extreme step to escape the fate foretold by the oracle.
Oedipus had also to
submit to the destiny which Apollo's oracle pronounced for him. He learnt from the oracle that he would kill his own father and marry his own mother. He, too, tried his utmost to avert a terrible fate and fled from Corinth. His wanderings took him to Thebes, where people were facing a great misfortune. King Laius had been killed and the city was in the grip of the Sphinx, who was causing a lot of destruction because nobody was able to solve her riddle. Oedipus solved the riddle and put an end to the monster. Oedipus was joyfully received by Theban people as their King and was given Laius’s widow as his wife. Thus, in complete ignorance of the identity of his parents, he killed his father and married his mother. He performed these disastrous acts not only unknowingly, but as a result of his efforts to escape the cruel fate which the oracle at had communicated to him.
It is evident that the occurrences which bring about the tragedy in the life of Laius, Oedipus, and Jocasta are the work of that
mysterious supernatural power called
fate or destiny or be given the name of Apollo. This supernatural power had
pre-determined certain tragic events and even informed the human beings in advance. These human beings take whatever measures, to avert those events; and yet things turn out exactly as they had been foretold by the oracles. Oedipus has done nothing at all to deserve the fate which overtakes him. Nor do Laius and Jocasta deserve the fate they meet.
According to Aristotle the tragic hero is a
prosperous man who falls into misfortune due to some serious
defect or hamartia. No doubt that Oedipus is an
able ruler,
a father of his people, a great
administrator and an
outstanding intellect. His chief care is not for himself but for the people of the State. The people look upon him as their
savior and worshipped him. He is also a
religious man in the orthodox sense. That such a man should meet the sad fate is unbearably painful to us.
Oedipus is not, however,
a perfect man or a perfect King. He does suffer from a
hamartia or a defect of character. He is
hot-tempered,
rash,
hasty in judgments,
easily provoked and somewhat
arbitrary. Though in the beginning his attitude towards Teiresias is one of reverence, he quickly
loses his temper and speaks to the prophet in an
insulting manner accusing both him and Creon of treason and showing a
blind suspicion towards friends. His
position and authority seem to be leading him to become a
tyrant. Creon has to remind him that the city does not belong to him alone. Even when blinded he draws the reproach:
“Do not crave to be master in everything always.”
All this shows that Oedipus is not a man of a
flawless character, not completely
free from faults, not an
embodiment of all the virtues. His
pride in his own
wisdom is one of his
glaring faults. His success in solving the riddle of the Sphinx further developed his inherent feeling of pride. There is in him a
failure of piety even. Under the influence of Jocasta, he grows
sceptical of the oracles. Thus there is in him a
lack of true wisdom which took him on the verge of becoming an impious tyrant.
If Oedipus had
not been hot-tempered, he might
not have got entangled in a fight on the road and might have not been guilty of
murdering his father. Similarly, if he had been a little
more cautious, he might have hesitated to
marry a woman old enough to be his mother. After all there was
no compulsion either in the fight or in his marriage. Both his acts may thus be
attributed to his own defects of character. All at once it has to be accepted that the
decree of the oracles were inescapable. Even if Oedipus had taken the
precautions, the prophecy was to be fulfilled. The oracle’s prediction was
unconditional; it did not say that if Oedipus did such and such a thing he would kill his father and marry his mother. The oracle simply said that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. What the oracle said, was bound to happen.
If Oedipus is the
innocent victim of inescapable doom, he would be a
mere puppet and the play becomes a
tragedy of destiny which denies
human freedom. Sophocles does not want to regard Oedipus as a puppet; there is reason to believe that Oedipus has been portrayed largely as a free agent. The attendant in the play insistently describes Oedipus’
self-blinding as voluntary and distinguishes it from his
involuntary murder of his father and
marriage with his mother. Oedipus’ actions were
fate-bound, but everything that he does, he does as a free agent – his
condemnation of Teiresias and Creon, his
conversation with Jocasta to reveal the facts, his
pursuing his investigation despite the efforts of Jocasta and the Theban shepherd to stop him, and so on. Oedipus,
freely choosing a series of actions, led to his own ruin. Oedipus could have left the
plague to take its course but his
pity over the sufferings of his people forced him to consult the oracle. He could have left the
murder of Laius uninvestigated, but his
love of justice obliged him to inquire. He need not have
forced the truth from the reluctant Theban shepherd but he could not
rest content with a lie. Teiresias, Jocasta, the Theban shepherd each tried to stop Oedipus, but he was
determined to solve the problem of his own parentage. The direct cause of his ruin is not fate; no oracle said that he must discover the truth. Still less does the cause of his ruin lie in his own
weakness. His own
strength and courage, his
loyalty to Thebes and his
love of truth causes his ruin. All this shows him a free agent.
In spite of the facts that Oedipus is a
free agent in most of his actions, still the most tragic events of his life – his murder of his father and his marriage with his mother – had
inevitably to happen. Here the
responsibility of fate cannot be denied. The real tragedy lies in the discovery of truth, which is due to his own traits. If he had not
discovered the truth, he would have continued to live in a
state of blissful ignorance and there would have been
no tragedy and no suffering. But the
parricide and the
incest were
pre-ordained and for these fate is responsible.