Character is Destiny - The lives of both King Lear and Oedipus Rex revolve around the idea that character is destiny.

The lives of both Oedipus Rex and King Lear eventually get out of control, and their determined outcomes are as visible as the conflicts that comprise them. Both Lear and Oedipus are faced with situations and circumstances that are uncontrollable. When Oedipus makes the fatal error of calling the messenger to reveal Laius’ murderer he completely loses control over the situation. Even he reveals his realization of this when he says, “if he shall speak of one-Only one, it is evident this deed/ Already will have brought me home”(30). Similarly, Lear has no control over Regan and Goneril’s conniving nature, calling them “two pernicious daughters”(III.ii.22). The difference between the two protagonists is that Oedipus reacts to problems, and Lear creates them. Oedipus’ actions are a result of his unavoidable desire to answer the two primary questions surrounding his life: who are his parents? and who killed Laius? After Oedipus gains insight into the truth about his parents and Laius’ murder he cannot “refuse to solve the mystery”(38), Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife, tells Oedipus that Laius’ murder occurred “at a place where three roads meet”(26). Oedipus recalls killing a man at a place of similar description, and needs verification that he is not the man who killed Laius. Lear’s problems are created when he denies Cordelia his power, and gives it to his deceptive daughters who want the power for nothing other than malicious purposes. Soon after giving the power to Regan and Goneril Lear foreshadows the consequences of his actions by saying, “this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws/Or ere I’ll weep. O Fool! I shall go mad”(II.iv.281-283). Oedipus’ lack of control is a result of the premonition made by the Oracle; and, although Lear’s lack of control can be attributed to fate, it is more so a result of his decisions early on in his life.  Although both men are doomed by a tragic fate, Lear has more control than Oedipus. Throughout the play, Oedipus merely reacts to past events in an attempt to make them right. The chaos present in King Lear is a result of Lear’s compulsion to control all aspects of his life, and his determination to make decisions that are primarily for the betterment of himself.

Recognized as the most complicated of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear provides an intertwining of a convoluted plot and complex character relationships, centred around a common idea that fate and destiny are the primary forces in the universe and, therefore, the primary forces of one’s life. Shakespeare artfully uses elements of Greek tragedy in writing his own tragedies, which accounts for the connection between the protagonists King Lear and Oedipus Rex. Destiny presumes that regardless of one’s actions the predetermined position will inevitably be reached. This literary examination of Lear and Oedipus reinforces in no uncertain terms that fate cannot be controlled, nor can it be avoided.