Sunday, December 7, 2014

How do you perceive Oedipus' freedom of choice and personal will through Sophocles' perception of the universe and society?

That is a great question and one that is not easy to answer. In fact, in the end, there will be no one correct answer, because Sophocles in particular and the Greek tragedians in general loved to problematize. They would take two important or core beliefs and put them against one another. For example, in your case, Sophocles pit human freedom and the will of the gods against each other. So, on the one hand there are these prophecies that must come truth (Oedipus will marry his mother and kill his father). On the other hand, Sophocles has Oedipus drive the narrative of the play by making decision and having the feeling that he can solve anything. For these two reasons, he is considered tragic. He choses his own fate, but at the same time his fate is also chosen for him. In the end both are true and we need to be comfortable with that.

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