3. ‘In Oedipus the King, Oedipus suffers because of a fate he cannot avoid rather than because of any errors he has committed.’ How far do you think this is true? (20)
Within ‘Oedipus the King’, Oedipus is shown to be a character who suffers from an amalgamation of many different factors which ultimately, drives him to his insanity and his fall from grace.
Sophocles presents Oedipus as a character who is essentially, not entirely good but not entirely bad either; he is like many other characters that are faced with a hard-hitting truth in a difficult situation, with a hard decision to make in order to resolve it – and like other characters, Oedipus’ situation was created by past events and fate (divine intervention). However, it could be argued that Oedipus is simply a dramatic tool used by Sophocles to give the audience a cathartic ending (in order for them to think about their lives, the events of the play and the circumstances within Athens at the time) – Oedipus could be seen as a political device used by Sophocles to present his ideas and feelings towards to contemporary Athens and its political situation at the time that the play was being performed.
The character of Oedipus could be seen to suffer simply due to that fact that the gods have fated this to happen. Throughout the play, there are several references to fate and divine intervention by the gods which could be seen to influence to outcome of the story; there are many instances in which gods are reference by the characters, including Oedipus. For example, Apollo is mentioned several times due to the fact that he is the god of prophecy; Oedipus sent Creon to visit the Delphi (a priest of Apollo) and the character of Tiresias, the blind prophet is also a prophet of Apollo. The reference to Apollo is ironic as the characters are trying to investigate the murder of Laius, with the help of Tiresias who is not revealing information as the truth of Oedipus will be revealed. Other gods also mentioned are Zeus, Athene, and Artemis during the first parados of the play; the reference to Zeus is a crucial element to the play as Zeus is the enforcer of fate; he has ultimate control over what happens to Oedipus, as well as the other characters as well as what happens to the audience. This shows that no matter happened to Oedipus, he was always going to be involved in this dire situation. (This could be seen as a relevant tool of drama as this may be seen as a way of Sophocles giving out the message that the gods will always direct you to their chosen path).
On the other hand, it could be argued that the outcome of ‘Oedipus the King’ was entirely down to Oedipus himself. During the play, Oedipus is shown to make several huge errors which may have led to his demise; during his meetings with Tiresias, at the beginning, he is shown to be quite polite however when Tiresias reveals that he won’t say what he knows, Oedipus grows increasingly impatient and very rude and insulting towards Tiresias by calling him “scum” and throwing insults at the fact that Tiresias is blind. This could be seen a huge error on Oedipus’ part, for many reasons, the first being that Tiresias is a guest in his house, in order to fulfil the role of kyrios in an appropriate manner, Oedipus should have welcomed Tiresias and shown him hospitality (xenia). The second reason as to why this could be seen as an error is the fact that Tiresias is a prophet of Apollo, showing distaste and negative reciprocity towards him would have angered the gods which would have led to dikê and Oedipus’ receiving of negative reciprocity in return.
To conclude, Oedipus shows many faults of his own within ‘Oedipus the King’ which may have angered the gods, in particular, Zeus. This ultimately may have added to the outcome of the events which were aimed to punish Oedipus for his errors. However, the events of Oedipus were overly down to the intervention by the gods and fate which soon saw Oedipus devastatingly punished.