The profound and inescapable nature of fate is the central force of Oedipus Rex. The play shows how divine prophecy dictates human destiny, while attempts to escape are futile.
The Role of Fate in Oedipus Rex
The role of fate is established by oracles from Apollo, which stand as immutable truths. Oedipus, Laius, and Jocasta fulfill them in ignorance and fear. The entire drama is just the mechanism for revealing this destiny.
The Initial Prophecy
The tragedy’s foundation is an oracle given to King Laius. It foretold his child,
would slay his father and wed his mother.
The parents tried to escape this fate, but their attempts ensured its fulfillment. This simple fact highlights fate’s cunning sovereignty.
Jocasta later confirms this prediction, stating Laius was,
doomed
To perish by the hand of his own son.
In response, when the son was three days old, Laius pierced his ankles. He gave him to be cast away “on the trackless mountain side.”
This drastic action was intended to defeat the oracle. Instead, it resulted in the baby’s survival and adoption in Corinth. This very act set the stage for the predetermined parricide.
This human failure leads Jocasta to dismiss all prophecy. She declares, “So then Apollo brought it not to pass… Regard it not.” Her confident dismissal, however, only shows her fatal error.
The Victim Driven by Fear
The same pursuit of evasion defines Oedipus’s life. He grew up believing he was the son of Polybus. One day, a “roisterer at some banquet” challenged him. The man shouted,
Thou art not true son of thy sire.
His parents denied the hurtful remark, but it still troubled him. Wanting to know the truth, Oedipus went to ask the Delphic god.
He heard the chilling words that he,
should defile his mother’s bed” and “slay the father.
Terrified by this, Oedipus made the conscious choice to flee. He did this,
so I never might
Behold my doom of infamy fulfilled.
He ran away to make sure the horrible prophecy about him would never come true. Oedipus did not want to live long enough to see himself commit those shameful acts. In his mind, leaving home was the only way to escape that fate.
This act of self-exile drove him to “the triple-branching roads.” It was there he encountered and “unwillingly slew his father Laius.”
Oedipus himself later questions if his actions were his own. He muses,
If one should say, this is the handiwork
Of some inhuman power…
The mechanism of fate molded his entire life.
The Oracle
The play’s present action begins as a response to a new divine mandate: a plague afflicts Thebes. The citizens supplicate Oedipus, who eagerly sends Creon to the shrine.
Phoebus Apollo tells the people of Thebes that they must purify themselves from the sin of murder. They can only do this by finding and punishing the killers of King Laius, whose death has brought a curse on the city.
Oedipus’s determination to find the murderer seems noble. He wants to help his people, and he promises to seek justice for Laius as if Laius were his own father.
He even declares that he will “drive out this poison in the blood,” meaning he will remove the source of corruption from the city at any cost.
However, Oedipus does not realize the tragic truth; he himself is the killer he is searching for. His passion for justice and truth, though admirable, is unknowingly driving him toward his own destruction.
The blind prophet Teiresias tries to stop Oedipus from continuing the investigation. Teiresias knows the truth—that Oedipus’s search will expose his own guilt and lead to disaster—but Oedipus refuses to listen.
He knows the misery it will bring:
Alas, alas, what misery to be wise
When wisdom profits nothing!
Oedipus, driven by his “choler” (an old-fashioned word that means anger or a bad temper), forces the seer to speak.
Teiresias finally reveals the bitter and devastating truth. He states plainly,
Thou art the man,
Thou the accursed polluter of this land.
Revelation
Teiresias predicts that a terrible curse connected to Oedipus’s mother and father will one day drive him away from Thebes. The prophet warns him that the same day Oedipus learns the truth about himself, he will feel like both a new birth and a death—a moment when his entire identity is destroyed.
When Teiresias says, “This day shall be thy birth-day, and thy grave,” he means that Oedipus will be reborn through the truth but also ruined by it. Learning who he really is will bring both revelation and tragedy.
The Chorus understands the seriousness of the prophet’s words. They say that the Fates—the powers that control human destiny—are chasing the murderer of Laius “like sleuth-hounds” (like hunting dogs). This means that the guilty person cannot escape. No matter where he goes, destiny will uncover the truth.
The Realization of Doom
Oedipus finds false reassurance when the Corinthian Messenger arrives with news. The news is that Polybus’s death was by natural causes.
Oedipus exclaims in triumph that he has defied the prophecy: “the oracles are dead.” Jocasta shares this confidence, asking,
why should a mortal man… be afraid?
This moment clearly marks the peak of their human error. However, the messenger soon reveals the whole, devastating truth. He reveals that Polybus was not Oedipus’s actual father.
This revelation, which Jocasta understands instantly, causes her to flee. She implores Oedipus,
Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o’er
This quest.
But Oedipus is determined to learn his true lineage. He demands that he see the Herdsman of Laius.
The Herdsman finally confesses that he pitied the babe. He gave the child to the Corinthian, fulfilling Jocasta’s command. She feared “a dread weird”—that the child should slay his sire.
At this moment, the prophecy is locked into place. Oedipus cries,
Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true!
I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed,
A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed.
Oedipus finally realizes he was “predestined to some awful doom.” His incredible rise to greatness was simultaneously his fall.
The Chorus delivers the final judgment on fate’s power:
For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall. Therefore, wait to see life’s ending ere thou count one mortal blest; Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest.
In Oedipus Rex, fate is clearly not a passive prediction. It is an active, driving force that uses human zeal as an instrument.
Oedipus’s tragedy is the revelation that all his actions were loops in a chain. This chain was forged by divine will, an eternal decree that brooks no mortal opposition.
