“However, even before a name had been given to the infant, Apollo’s oracle foretold nothing but ill: he was destined one day to kill his father and then to become his mother’s husband. (Gee 194)” It just so happened that fate intervened once more. “When Oedipus became a young man he heard a rumour that he had been adopted … he therefore went to Delphi and asked the ministers of Apollo who his true parents where, but all he was told was that he would kill his father and marry his mother. (Gee 194)” Oedipus, thinking that the king and queen of Corinth are his parents, leaves in attempt to escape that destiny, to no avail. By leaving, he left behind his parents, family members and friends.
From the beginning, Oedipus Rex was a baby, Lauis and Jocasta found out from the oracle, that Oedipus Rex was going to kill his father and marry his mother. Lauis ordered that his baby son should be exposed in the woods with a pin through his feet to keep from crawling away but that didn’t change anything. Everything that was going to happen to Oedipus Rex was set and carved in stone. Oedipus Rex’s parents tried to change it but it never worked. Oedipus Rex heard from the oracle, when he was an adult that he was going to kill his father and sleep with his mother.
When Creon leaves Jocasta asks Oedipus what happened he explained the whole thing. She tells him not to believe a word that the oracle said because one he predicted that her son would kill his father and marry his mother and this had never happened. She had a son with Laius but after learning of this prophecy he had the childs feet bound and thrown in
Their own son (who has not been born yet) will grow up, and he will kill his father (King Laois) and marry his mother (Queen Jocaste). In an attempt to not let this prophecy come true the king and queen ordered a peasant to leave Oedipus on the side of a mountain, and this is when the prophecy beings to take its path. The peasant does not leave it on the mountain side, for he would feel guilty to kill an infant. He handed it off to another peasant to bring to his town. One simple trip to an oracle sets the outline of a great ancient Greek tragedy.
That was another example of how fate is present because the oracle also said that Oedipus was going to marry his mother. The final example is that Oedipus became king of Thebes and that is just what happened. Although Fate seems to be very present in the story, there are many examples where free will is shown. For example, Oedipus killing Laius could have been prevented if Oedipus didn’t reacted so quick without thinking. Another example of this is where Oedipus puts a curse on the city of Thebes without even thinking what he was doing.
Therefore he must figure out if his father’s ghost is telling the truth through an ongoing investigation before enacting on the revenge request, thus delaying said request for the first time. With that being said, is Hamlet a play driven by revenge if he spends the play consistently delaying its course of action through his own adversities? Enter “The Murder of Gonzago” as a ploy to hopefully convince Hamlet that Claudius was the true murderer of his father. This play reenacts the poisoning of Hamlet’s father in a similar way. Using Claudius’s reaction to the play as a basis in order to determine the truth behind his father’s ghost, “where I’ll catch the conscience of the King (152).” Based on Claudius’s reaction to the murder, “Give me some
Oedipus tries to avoid this by running away from his “parents”. Then he is confronted with the sphinx and solves her riddle. After he becomes king, he marries Jocasta (his mother).Tiresias gets tired of Oedipus’s arrogance and tells him the truth about the fulfilled prophecy. Oedipus doesn’t believe him so; he goes searching for the truth his self. Once he finds out this is true he blinds himself and banned his self from civilization forever.
Oedipus has sent Creon, his brother-in-law, to the house of Apollo to ask help from the oracle. And now, Creon returns with the instruction: Thebes will be cured of the plague, as soon as the killer of the previous king, Laius, is caught. After hearing this, Oedipus vows to find out the murderer and punish him. With the suggestion from chorus, Oedipus also summons the blind prophet Tiresias for help. When Tiresias arrives, he claims that even though he knows the truth, he is reluctant to answer.
Hamlet's incapability to commit revenge for the duration of the play indicates that he is sexually arrosed by the idea of being with his mother and rid himself of his father. Many critics argue this correlation parallels a much earlier tragedy in which a man named Oedipus accidentally slaughters his father and marries his mother. This sexual fantasy Hamlet manifests hinders him from committing revenge upon King Claudius because Claudius himself is a living corporeal representation of the man he hungers to become. "Hamlets problem" throughout the tragedy is articulated by Shakespeare through motif, tragic flaw, and allusion and further fortifies his use of the Oedipus complex. Oedipus, as many say, is rooted in the tale of "Hamlet" This particular work of Shakespeare's is subject to a vast array of interpretations, perhaps the most controversial and significant is the relationship between Hamlet and his mother Gertrude and how it parallels the greek tragedy "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles.
Oedipus Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles about a man who tries to escape a prophecy of his life from coming true but in turn, ends up fulfilling it instead. Oedipus, the protagonist of the story, is destined by the prophecy to kill his father, Lauis and then marry his mother, Jocasta. Oedipus though, shortly discovers that all this time he had been in denial and subsequently to his own demise. With this, Sophocles, knowing that his audience already knows the outcome of the play, uses this knowledge to create situations that involve a number of verbal, dramatic, and situational irony that keeps the audience on the edge and also develop the characters in the play. This play sends a strong message of fate and free will to the audience.