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Fate Versus Free Will Essay, Research Paper

Fate Versus Free Will

Fate, as described in the Oxford English Dictionary, is “The principle, power, or agency by which, according to certain philosophical and popular systems of belief, all events, or some events in particular, are unalterably predetermined from eternity.” To the western world, fate is perceived as “a sentence or doom of the gods” (Oxford). They often sought prophecies of the gods, especially from Apollo, the god of knowledge. The Greeks would seek prophecies usually when they had doubts about something, or if they were afraid or in despair. When the gods made a prophecy, the Greeks put all their faith in it and believed that it would happen. When their prophecies did come true, was it really fate that controlled them? If so, was there any room for free will?

Some have difficulty believing that a god, rather than their own actions, could control their fate. However, when a god made a prophecy, which later came true, the evidence was clear enough to cause someone to believe in fate. In one famous play, the question of fate versus free will plays a dominant role during analysis. The play, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, stars a young man, Oedipus, who appears to be the pawn of the gods. In Ode four (27-31), the chorus comments on Oedipus’ state:

And now of all men ever known

Most pitiful is this man’s story:

His fortunes are most changed, his state

Fallen to a low slave’s

Ground under bitter fate.

Every aspect of Oedipus’ life and everyone he loves eventually suffers from a horrible fate predicted by the gods. However, did Oedipus have to suffer his fate or did he have the power to change it; is the outcome of Oedipus’s life really the result of fate or his own actions? Afterall, “The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves” (Exodus 9).

There is a lot of evidence contained in the play that proves the Greeks believed that their lives were controlled by fate. Edith Hamilton agrees that “the human mind played no part at all in the whole business” (176). Three oracles are introduced. An oracle is a communication pathway between mortals and the gods. The first oracle predicts a murder. Laius, the king of Thebes, hears the prophecy that his son will kill him. The second oracle predicts that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. The third and final oracle states that whoever can solve the riddle of the Sphinx will win the throne of Thebes and Iocaste as his Queen. These three oracles serve as the backbone of the story. Knowing these, the audience sits back to wait the turn of events. Reading the play while knowing the oracles can be compared to watching a movie for the second time: you still think the characters will make a different decision. However, these characters are the victims of fate, and their actions have already been planned out, or have they?

When the Greeks received bad prophecies, they often tried to avoid their fate through actions of their own. When Laius hears that his son will kill him, he tries to avoid it. He, along with Iocaste, pins their child’s legs together and gives him to a messenger to be disposed of on a mountain. However, out of pity for the boy, the messenger gives the baby to a shepherd of a nearby town, Corinth. Thus the boy grows up to become Oedipus. Later in his life, Oedipus learns through Apollo that he is “the man / Who should marry his own mother, shed his father’s blood / With his own hands” (3. 81-83). To avoid doing so, he leaves Corinth and the people he thinks are his parents. By doing this, he walks right into fate. According to Bernard Knox, “the prophecy allows for the independent action of the recipient; the fulfillment of the prophecy results from the combination of the prophecy with the recipient’s free action” (39). Laius, Iocaste, and Oedipus all try to avoid their fates, but in reality, their actions only lead them closer to their fates being sealed.

Do these characters have free will? They are in control of their actions. For example, Laius and Iocaste give up their child. They don’t have to; they could have raised the child and protected the king. They could have even killed the child themselves. Giving up the child is their own decision. Likewise, Oedipus doesn’t have to leave Corinth; he could have questioned his parents and discovered the truth. Instead, he leaves Corinth on his own free will. However, “the hero’s will is limited by fate” (Knox 3); the gods will have their divine intervention. Knox goes on to add that a play has to have some sort of proof of character free will in order to effect any excitement (5). The characters show that they have free will but their actions are really guided by the fates predicted by the gods. In other words, their actions are their own but the results of their actions appear as the interventions of the gods. It seems that no matter how they try to avoid their fate, the gods will ultimately win: “As for death, it will come whenever the Fates with their spindle decide…. For in no way is it decreed that a man may escape death…” (Guthrie, 130).

Not everyone believed in the prophecies of the gods. Iocaste feels that the word of the gods should be disregarded. She believes that Laius died by the hands of a stranger rather than “at the hands of his son, as he had feared” (2.197). Since she believes that her son is long dead, she feels that Laius escaped his fate and the god’s prophecy was proven wrong. In scene two (324-29), she tries to explain to Oedipus the reasons behind her disbelief in the prophecies:

He [the shepherd] cannot ever show that La?os’ death

Fulfilled the oracle: for Apollo said

My child was doomed to kill him; and my child-

Poor baby!- It was my child that died first.

No. From now on,

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