In the story of King Oedipus, written by Sophocles, to judge Oedipus one must look at the events in the play as they occurred and look at how Oedipus reacts and takes action according to the turn of events. Doing this will show that the character, Oedipus, is only partially responsible for bringing about the disastrous fate that was predicted for him at birth. The following paragraphs will only further persuade the reader that Oedipus was destined from the beginning to be cursed and all he did to contribute was to be himself and to be unaware. At the beginning of the story Oedipus is viewed as a hero, the solver of all problems and "all-around good guy". This perception of him slowly changes over the course of the play to the situation where Oedipus is ridiculed and exiled. This fall from grace is solely due to circumstances rather than any fault of Oedipus himself. The body of the argument will explain the circumstances which Oedipus lived through and that all he was responsible for was being human and having character flaws.

Firstly, it is known by all readers or viewers before the play that the final outcome of the play is prophesied before the main character,

Oedipus is even born. "His life is clouded with the presage of disaster; he was destined to one day kill his father and to become his own mother's husband". Oedipus' destiny was pre-determined. No matter how good a person he was, even if he had not one human flaw, one way or another he would fulfil the prophecy and end up in disaster. Due to the prophecy, Oedipus had only a small part in his own downfall.

As can be plainly seen by the above arguments, Oedipus was only minimally responsible for his own downfall. According to the destiny set out for him at birth any course of action taken by anyone to avoid it would be futile and useless and only alter the way in which his downfall came about, not prevent it. In this play Oedipus discovered the truth in a heroic way because it was done to stop the plague on Thebes. All that Oedipus did to help the prophecy come true was to live his life the best he could and to be unaware.

Secondly, at the beginning of the play, Oedipus is approached by his faithful subjects for help as they are suffering horribly due to the plague that has set itself upon Thebes. Here, Oedipus is seen as the tower of strength, the hero and saviour of his people. His way of speaking to the people supports this theory " I would willingly do anything to help you; indeed I should be heartless were I to stop my ears to a general petition such as this". As the play continues and Oedipus' character faults come to view the audience starts to judge him on these and begin to realise the truth that Oedipus is just a man, not a god, which is what he once believed Once such event

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1077
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)