Widows who weave the strands of fate, forever bounding you in the fabric of time and space. A single strand that mustn't be disturbed in the slightest, without the entirety falling apart. The Fates, they are said to plan out your entire life onto the fragilest of strings each string varying at different lengths for different lives. Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, questions how human life is affected by fate and free will. Oedipus was told by the Oracle that he was to marry his mother and kill his father. Unaware that, by running from his presumed parents, he would be forever sealing his fate and prophecy. All of Oedipus decisions were intermingled with fate, whenever Oedipus would make a decision it simply aligned with his destiny. What Oedipus perceived as free will was already predetermined by the Fates. It was Oedipus’s free will that brought him to the oracle and his decision to run away, but by following his choices he fulfilled his fate which ultimately led to his tragic downfall. …show more content…
Choosing to visit the oracle, Killing a man on the way to Thebes, accepting the Throne and marrying Jocasta, are believed to all be decisions of free will, which led to his downfall. However these would prove to be false. These decisions would be worthless, because the day he was born his fate was decreed and unchangeable. Oedipus’s free will could have chosen many paths but all would have ended in the same location, that of his fate. Oedipus tries to change his fate but only manages to cement it with these choices he makes. Oedipus does not choose to marry his mother, the marriage was predetermined and unavoidable no matter how hard he