In Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart”, the issue of fate over free will lingers over the Umuofia clan. Social status and wealth determine a person’s fate, but with sheer force and hard work, they can change their luck. Okonkwo’s determination to succeed collides with his fate, ending his life by committing suicide. Through the novel, we find that Achebe’s characters determine whether fate or free will play a great role in our own future. Okonkwo’s fate is determined through his own free will of actions.
Robert Boyce Eng 190 Short Essay February 3, 2013 Oedipus and the Will of the Gods Free will, or one's ability to make choices that are unconstrained by outside factors, is a controversial issue that arises in the play Oedipus Rex. While it may appear that Oedipus was making his own conscious decisions throughout the play, his destiny was already predetermined and inevitable because the prophecies of the oracles speak for the gods which control the overall destiny of the people. Oedipus' downfall was not a result of moral fault. Instead, his downfall was due to Oedipus simply not knowing enough of the truth which led him to make decisions he thought would disprove the prophecies but in reality would lead him into a predetermined chain of events with a catastrophic ending. Oedipus' downfall can also be contributed to sudden reversal and recognition which played a substantial role in Jocasta's suicide and Oedipus' self-blinding.
Oedipus Tyrannus: The Ethic behind Free Will The Oedipus story, Oedipus Tyrannus, was written by Sophocles and is heralded by Aristotle as his greatest work. In studying this version of Oedipus myth, one should as why did Sophocles presented the events in a manner as he did. More importantly what brings Oedipus, a great king to his down fall? At first glance, one may claim that Oedipus is given by the gods what he deserves-- he is blinded and cast out from his kingdom because of awful crime and his hubristic actions trying to escape Apollo's oracle. This explanation I find, is lacking in evident in the literature.
Possible thesis statement: The Greek word tyrannous reflects the ironic nature of both the events and characterization in the play Oedipus Rex. Possible points of argument: Irony of the notion that Oedipus “seized control via intelligence, yet was due to inherit the crown anyway Oedipus’s downfall was a direct result of being blinded to the blind oracle’s words Irony of Oedipus seeing the truth and becoming a great man only when he was blinded to the world and had fallen from greatness 2. Over the entrance to the temple at Delphi are inscribed these words: “Know Thyself”. Defend the statement that Oedipus is the classic example of the man whose central problem is that he does not know himself. Support your ideas with textual evidence.
In the world we live in, it seems that every other person is out for self gain They will step on anyone and do whatever it takes to get what they want, but does that make them purely evil? What if in their final moments they go something good? Or if their evil ways are result’s of circumstances that they can no control over? It’s a hard line to draw and in King Lear Shakespeare explains why through the use of conclusions. The most important conclusion Shakespeare has drawn about the nature of humanity in King Lear is the fact that evil is not something the gods have cursed you with at birth but it is something that you choose for yourselfACt .
In Sophocles’ second play, the knowledge Oedipus gain of his fate brings his inevitable downfall quicker and more powerful than it could have been without his knowledge. His fate was already predetermined but his knowledge of that fate and his choice to let it guide him hindered his free will to change his path and lessen the severity of his actions. Oedipus’ hubris and his mentality that no matter what he did or said he was better than anyone else in Thebes, is partly what lead to his gauche discovery of his fate and what he had done with his life. He had learned of his fate and thought he cleverly escaped it by leaving Corinth and coming to Thebes but he had only made it approach faster. Oedipus knew that he could choose to run from his fate but he also knew that somehow it would come back to him and that he had never fully escaped what the oracle had told him.
Much of what Socrates uses to defend himself proves otherwise; this is proven in the story of the Oracle from Delphi. What does Socrates think of the gods? Socrates seems to contradict himself on several occasions on this issue. As Socrates defends his charge of atheism proposed by his accusers, he is able to prove to one of his accusers, Meletus, that he believes in the gods. In this essay I will prove that Socrates is in fact not a religious person, but he has had to act religious all his life as so he wouldn’t ever be accused for something such as this and uses this act to completely disprove the accusations made against him.
The Sophoclean view of man’s place in the world is expressed well in the play by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex. Oedipus Rex is about the king and queen of Thebes, and Oedipus who try to escape the fate. In this play, we can clearly see what Sophocles views of man’s place in the world of ancient Greece. We can see that Sophocles tried to warn his audience about the gods and how powerful they really are and how insignificant we, humans, are. that man has free will but no matter what he chooses to do he will confront his fate given He shows his audience to him by the gods.
In the movie ‘Clash of the Titans’, we are shown that if a god sees fit, he or she can punish humanity for a choice that it makes that goes against the interests of Olympus. Hence, the freedom of mankind is put into question, due to the controlling nature of the gods. However, for there to be punishment, there must be an element of choice to even commit a crime against the divinities. The decision to go against the gods is still an option, regardless of the consequence that may entail. The ancient Greek gods were known for there might, however their might was often not related with kindness, but rage.
,Question: Oedipus Rex is primarily a text about the limitations of the human condition rather than the strength of the human spirit. Discuss. ‘Oedipus Rex’ is not only a mere dramatized folktale of the fifth century Greece but it divulges more than that. This text is a ‘tragedy of destiny’(Dodds 1966,p.1) where man’s inner strength is tested based upon the ability to seek the truth about the conditions of life and about their means to accept it by seeing themselves either as the agents of their own fate or by being victims of gods’ determinism. This text owns all its uniqueness from the way Sophocles perfectly but subtly dips into the condition of human nature.