Oedipus and Antigone.

Simply Fate

Everyone likes to believe that they have control of their lives, but does one really and if not, does one have the power to change fate? In the plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone, by Sophocles, Oedipus, king of Thebs, tries to avoid his fate of killing his father and marrying his mother, but fate cannot be altered. Oedipus fathers Antigone, Ismene, Polynices, and Eteocles with his mother Jocasta unknowingly, after killing his father. After Oedipus is exiled, Antigone and Ismene have a terrible fate to follow. When Eteocles and Polynices kill each other in battle, only Eteocles is allowed a proper burial, while Polynices cannot be buried under the new King Creon's law. Antigone goes against Creon's law to bury her brother and is killed. Creon's fate is also doomed because by killing Antigone, results in his son and wife committing suicide.

Creon decrees while Oedipus bleeds

Oedipus At Colonus

Oedipus complex: Oedipus explains the riddle of th...

Oedipus, Antigone and Creon must learn to accept fate because no matter how hard they try, they cannot change it.

In the beginning of the first play, Oedipus the King, Oedipus believes he can control and change his own fate. When Oedipus learns his destiny, he makes a desperate attempt to alter it. "Apollo told me once-it is my own fate-I must make love to my own mother, shed my fathers blood with my own hands. So for years I've given Corinth a wide berth..." (Sophocles 216). Oedipus tries so hard to avoid his horrible fate. He believes he has the power to change his future, when he has no chance. He is being set up by the gods and can never change is fate.

As the story progresses, he sees that he is not in charge of his destiny. "Oh go-all come, true, all burst to light."...