Connections to Oedipus

Sophocles' Oedipus Rex depicts the tragic life of Oedipus, a man with no control over his own fate. Even before he is born Oedipus is destined to "stand and fail". Oedipus hears from a prophet that he is doomed to "lie with [his] own mother, breed children from whom all men would turn their eyes; and...be [his] father's murderer" and that is precisely the course his life takes.Oedipus doesn't accept this and flees his home only to run head first into the situation he most fears. The harder Oedipus tries to escape his fate the more rapidly it approaches. All of his attempts to take control over his life fail and he laments that Apollo "brought my sick, sick fate upon me". Oedipus has no choice in what happens to him but isn't it choice and free will what separate one person from another? Say what happened to Oedipus is normal and we've all had our lives mapped out for us since the day we were born than there is no such thing as an individual. Of course this begs the question does fate exist? Sometimes an event will occur where every factor lines up and it seems too perfect to be a coincidence, like going to Chipotle  only to run into the love of your life who happened to be getting a burrito at the exact same time in the exact the same place. Despite the strong argument these situations present I personally believe that the individual is always in control of their own fate though others actions and unforeseen circumstances may influence its course. Which is good news because it means that no matter the heart wrenching tales Sophocles spins for us there is still potential for individualism.


I choose this picture of Oedipus because the blood represents his unique struggle and destiny but the fact that none of his features are visible symbolize how fate his taken away all of his choice and consequently his individualism.