Sophocles

“It lies not in our power to love or hate, for will in us is over-ruled by fate.” (Marlowe) If one believes in fate, then essentially that individual understands that often times humans mistakenly believe that they can alter or evade fate. The interplay between fate and blindness as illustrated in the two plays “Oedipus the King” and “Oedipus at Colonius” by Sophocles demonstrates the close connection between the two themes. The main character Oedipus …

…in his emotional blindness he vainly attempts to evade fate’s curse. The human act of evasion becomes fate’s most powerful accomplice because in the end all things come to achieve destiny. In his misery, Oedipus physically blinds himself yet internally his insight awoke. In the end Oedipus possessed the capacity to both “love and hate” because he emerged as a sagacious old man prepared to accept that his life was “overruled by fate.”