Oedipus Rex and Fate

While Oedipus Rex is a text rich in dramatic irony,  the entire plot basically revolves around fate and a predetermined life. In one way or another, Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. Even though it's not always the idea people wish to accept, I believe that life is predetermined, at least in some respects. Maybe Oedipus's circumstances are the most extreme examples of fate, but the idea is present nonetheless. Unfortunately for Oedipus, the gods decided to make a bit of an example out of him. They aimed to prove their superiority over mortals. Maybe Oedipus's predetermined life was used to reassert the gods and teach everyone else a lesson. In the end, the gods must have had a reason for laying out such a terrible fate for Oedipus.

Another thing to consider is the use of a predetermined path to illuminate dramatic irony. However, the turn of events follow the fate more than they lead the dramatic irony. I believe the irony is used as a result of the lesson or moral to heighten the point of fate. The characters may not have known what was going on, but the audience could clearly see the consequences of trying to control a prophesy or a fate. It can really start to bother people when they ponder how little freedom they may have. Maybe the moral of the story is that the gods know what they are doing, and following the path they have laid out will be best in the end. Problems would only arise if and when a mortal thinks they have more power than they really do. Ultimately, this era of civilization blamed, or even owed, most events in their lives to the gods. A story like this may give the people even more incentive to follow the predetermined path they have been given.

The validity of fate is even more evident when people try to trick fate. It's as if there is unbalance when something does not go as it should. It reminds me of the Final Destination movies; when people cheat death they will soon suffer an even worse end. In this story when Iokaste and Laios try to change their fate, their lives end worse than if they have just not conceived a child in the first place. To me, is seems like the gods get angry when the mortals try to change what was set out for them, which makes sense. The gods believe one thing should happen, and if it doesn't they will try other, sometimes worse, things in order to get what they had originally wanted.

Oedipus leaves a bit of a sour view of what I had originally thought fate to look like in our lives. In the end, things will always turn out the way they are supposed to, but this story leaves me wondering. How do we know that the end will actually be okay for us?

Am I really the master of my fate?

"When you get there, it will feel right." I can't count the amount of times somebody has given me this advice. As if when my nose breaks the barrier between the outside world and a college campus I will know that's where I am meant to be. It's almost as though the mere atmosphere of a college meshes with my own bioligy so well that, inside, I will imediatley know.

I have never been good at decisions. Even the thought of choosing dinner most nights causes concern! Like most AP and Honors students, I have been thinking about college for the bulk of the last year and a half. The list has fluxuated at the rate of waves in the ocean: it is ever changing. Colleges come and go, and none from the original list have survived the scrutiny. How could I leave such a daunting decision up to just a "feeling", a mere tingling in my heart, a voice that urges "this is it, pick here"? I cannot! Unless. Maybe there is a bit of a life plan, a map persay. Maybe my life has partially predetermined. Maybe somebody else has chosen a path I should follow. And that tug in my heart is really a shove towards that path. But then, how am I to know that is the right path to follow?

I have had my heart broken time and time again. I’m not talking about the conventional jerk lying and ruining my trust in men, but instead the sport that has been more alive in my life than most people I know. For as long as I can remember I have been a swimmer. I have lived a life filled with chlorine, goggle tans, and summers filled with less than leisurely days spent by the pool. I hav given myself to the sport. I put my heart and soul into hard work. I have let dreams fill my head. I have made plans for our future. Then, all at once, my world comes crumbling down. Red lights form into numbers, not the numbers I want.

But looking back, it's those times that have really shaped my life. Every time life tears me down, I want to fight back even harder. It's because of the negatives that I can achieve positives in my life. When it comes down to it, I think that life happens for a reason. We are shot down and broken, but we are not destroyed. There is always a way to patch up what is broken and heal to be even stronger than we started. Is the entire path predetermined? I'm not sure. But I do know that without every event in my life, I would not be the person I am today. So how can I trust a "feeling" when it comes to the biggest decision in my short life? It's simple. If I make the right choice I will  fulfill my college experience as I was meant to--filled with more early mornings than late nights. If I make the wrong choice, I know that I will find some way to undo the wrong. A knowing in my heart will guide me the right way. Really all that I can do is trust that someone somewhere out there sees my life in a far greater sense than I ever could. I see the right now, the seventeen year old life. They see the end, a life at eighty or ninety fully lived. In this life, all I can do is trust that path to know what I need. Life really is too short, why not live a little better if I know everything will end up okay in the end?