The argument on fate vs. choice is one that goes on in my head quite a bit, but choice always seems to win out. I assume the reason for this is because the other option (fate) just seems so depressing. I mean, think about it, if fate were to control everything, why have dreams of achieving in the future if no matter what you do, the outcome will not be a product of your own actions. Furthermore that could lead to “why get up and work hard if it’s not my choice if I get promoted” or “why choose an option that is good for me, like having a healthy meal or getting a decent night sleep, if my health is not determined by my actions and I’m going to conk out when fate says so?” That belief could really mess with my psychy. So I choose choice as a belief system. If not for that being the right answer to weather fate even exists, I choose choice because, really, what’s the point of living if you have no control over life?

In Oedipus Rex, though, I do believe that Oedipus’s plotline is left to fate. Being a fictitious story, the author has the ability to use fate, which he does. Oedipus makes the choice to kill his father and become his mother’s lover so he wouldn’t be fated to the curse the prophet predicted. But in spite of these choices, Oedipus ends up fulfilling his fate. Sophocles portrayed fate to trump all, no matter what happened, fate was going to win.