The Question of Fate

Abstract

Aristotle says nothing about fate as a literary device in any of the surviving plays, but it is fate that governs Oedipus Rex from the beginning of the play to its end. At first, upon hearing that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus tries honorably to avoid this fate by leaving Corinth, where he is heir to the throne. But the irony that governs the play is that in trying to flee his fate he is only running headlong into it. He consults the oracle at Delphi, only to be troubled by its prophecy. The king, his reputed father, dies, and Corinth expects him to take his place. Jocasta sees this as proof that he did not kill his father, but he wonders, “And yet—must I not fear my mother’s bed?” to which she replies,

Have no more fear of sleeping with your mother:

How many men, in dreams, have lain with their mothers?

No reasonable man is troubled by such things.