His nai?? vety is what prevents him from seeing the trap he is walking into here : ” – Une femme qui pourrait etre votre mi??re! – L’essentiel est qu’elle ne le soit pas”. In addition, his charming personality and flirtatious behaviour, “Puis-je vous demander votre nom? ” are important in convincing the Sphinx to spare him, and give him the answer to the riddle.
Finally, the Sphinx gives i?? dipus her human remains to take as evidence of his success, and therefore helps him on his way towards his tragic end. Had i?? dipus been more sensitive, she might have warned him of the mistake he was making, yet he was too vain to thank her, leading her to encourage him on his route to self-destruction, “Vous rami??nerez ma di?? pouille i?? Thi?? bes et l’avenir vous ri?? compensera… selon vos mi?? rites”.
The third and final occurrence which I will use to assess the roles of fate, chance and human responsibility within the play, is the suicide and self-inflicted blindness which follow the revelation revealed in the final act. Up until this point, Fate had been the driving force behind the events which have taken place within the last seventeen years.
We now reach the situation which has been set up and developed over the years to raise i??dipus to a status from which it would be please the Gods for him to fall from. It is chance that Polybe died at this time, after Jocaste and i?? dipus have produced four children, but during this scene, I believe that i?? dipus is responsible for the unveiling of how he has fulfilled his fate perfectly. One might argue that in expressing joy at the death of someone whom he believed to be his natural father, he is punished by the discovery of his adoption, “… vous n’i?? tiez que son fils adoptif”.
As Tiresias points out, i??dipus likes to know everything, and as he pushes the messenger for more information, it is he himself who is responsible for the outcome of this scene, and the play in general, “… j’interrogerai sans crainte”. Yet, i?? dipus cannot even be said to be honourable at this point, as he falsely blames Tiresias of having forced him to admit his crime, “… vous m’avez poussi?? i?? dire que j’i?? tais un assassin… “. Human responsibility becomes more evident when it is revealed how both Jocaste and i?? dipus lied to each other, “Mon histoire de chasse…fausse come tant d’autres”, “Jocaste a di?? mettre son crime sur le compte d’une de ses servantes”.
At this point, Jocaste is tortured by that which she has ignored or been unaware of throughout her marriage, and i?? dipus is similarly delirious, “… c’est fini… fini” before blinding himself. Jocaste and i?? dipus have displayed the same personality traits as they try to outwit the Gods, by running away from or abandoning that which connects them to the fate which has been prophesised. Their naivety is displayed at numerous points throughout, and in i??dipus’ case, the words are even said to him, “Une femme qui pourrait etre votre mi?? re! “, making his ignorance pathetic, if not comedic.
Human responsibility is the last factor which plays a major role in this play, yet Fate is in my opnion, the most important of all as it is the fate decided by the Gods which was the starting point of the tragedy. Chance has a relatively small part to play, as although it decided the details such as how i?? dipus kills Laius, and the way in which Jocaste and i?? dipus find out they have committed incest, their fate and therefore the outcome of the play, remains the same.
