Analyzing the Relationship Between Fate and Free Will in Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King, also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannous, is a prominent and highly praised Greek tragedy which tells of a king who is blind to his own identity and in the search for the truth, unknowingly finds himself in a series of cause and effect reactions that ultimately lead to his downfall. Although written around the time of 420 BC, Oedipus the King has not yet failed in provoking us, as readers, to question the themes of divine fate and human agency as told by the characters of Oedipus, Jocasta, Tiresias, and the Greek chorus. Are the characters inferior to the omnipotent power the gods hold over their subjects, or is their course determined by the steps they choose to follow? As the events in the play were revealed, the relationship between fate and human agency became in extricable; as one factor comes into play, the other is inadvertently introduced. As humans, the characters cannot always choose what happens to them, but the gods gave them the gift of freedom to react in the ways that they deem necessary. Therefore, fate is determined by nothing more than human condition by which the characters create in their own choices, however it is fate that presents the characters with the conditions that they must then adapt to. JOCASTA. No skill in the world, Nothing human can penetrate the future. Here is proof, quick and to the point. An oracle come to Laius one fine day (I won’t say from Apollo himself But his underlings, his priests) and it said That doom would strike him down at the hands of a son,