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?
Hi, Emily!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great question, and I liked your musings on it. I also have a hard time with decisions, often because, like Frost, I want to travel both paths rather than being forced to choose. I also appreciate your reflections on swimming and the challenges you've come up against, though I'd like to hear more about how they've affected your overall spirit. When you talk about leaving big decisions up to a "feeling" it sounds to me like you're really talking about intuition, but not using that word. I may be off here, but it didn't really sounds so much like a discussion of fate as it did intuition--that non-rational and non-verbal sense in us that knows when something is right. It's partly about trusting ourselves, or that part of us, which is hard for us intellectuals to do.
With Oedipus, it's clearly about fate, and you're right that the results are a bit scary. Oedipus has been made an example of (along with Iokaste & Laius), and, like Oedipus, we might see the gods as cruel, or we might simply blame it on the carelessness of Iokaste & Laius. Either way, what happens in Oedipus' fate is frightening and horrifying. What I wonder, as I think about both your posts, is what you think about Oedipus' sense of intuition...if the gods skewed his inner senses so that it felt "right" to kill Laius and to marry Iokaste? Why didn't he sense that something about the prophecy was off, with regard to Polybus & Merope? Why didn't some inner sense tell him that the drunkard was right about his birth, and that therefore he didn't have to run away? We could, after all, make the argument that had Oedipus only listened to himself more strongly than he listened to the oracle, that he might have avoided his fate. Of course, if it's truly fate, there's no avoiding it, but it's an interesting way to think about the story. Usually, when we listen to others at the expense of listening to ourselves, we regret it. I look forward to hearing more about this from you!