Which Path Shall I Choose?

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Ann Baucom

Shirley Kahlert English 1B

Which Path Shall I Choose?

An individual's future is determined by a myriad of decisions, directing the individual down any number of branching paths. Those decisions constitute consideration, evaluation and resolution - all acts of free will. One is not fated to think, one simply does. "One could always have experienced or acted somewhat differently from the way one did."(Child 40)

Upon learning of the prophecy that he was to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus "himself ran away to avoid fulfilling the prophecy." (Biddle 768) He made this decision freely, believing that if he left, the prophecy could not come true. The other path, which he could have taken, would have been to confront the prophecy. His, believed, parents did not help him make this decision. They knowingly continued with the falsehood of being his true parents. Had they spoken the truth, Oedipus could have chosen the second path and he would have halted his own demise.

Iocaste is not to be left without mention in all that happens to Oedipus. As the wife of Laios, and a member of the rule, she allowed