Ancient Greek tragedy is viewed as the tragedy of fate by most people. Oedipus Rex’s tragic destiny began to appear before his birth. His father Laius, the king of Theban had received vicious curse which causes the tragedy lasted three generations is due to his desire to males and the fact that he forced Cynysippus to be his lover. Apollo had warned Laius, predicted that his son Oedipus will one day kill his father and marry his mother. Out of the fear of his fate, Laius nailed Oedipus’s heels and sent a shepherd to kill him in the mountains in order to get rid of the oracle. The shepherd ended up leaving Oedipus instead. Accidentally, he became the adopted son of the childless king of Corinth. After Oedipus grew up, he knew about his predestination, hoping to revolt against his own fate. So he left the Corinth and went to the neighboring country, Theban. Form here, tragedy began. From the script, I saw a father and son two people similar to each other, they all effort and struggle to change their fate even their actions paid a heavy price, even still cannot change the catastrophe of the story.
Another reason that contributes to Oedipus’s downfall is his character. Due to his own self-confidence and the sense of being responsible for the subjects, he was blind to the truth that the other people telling to him but stubborn to find out the truth. Step by step, finally pull himself to be brought to the judgment seat. We can easily know about that he is arrogant at the beginning of the script that he talked with his subjects. His excessive arrogance makes him rather to suspect Tiresias and Creon joint together to usurp the throne than believe the situation which said by Tiresias.
Tiresias、Jocasta and herdsman had been trying to dissuade Oedipus from proving the truth in the process of his search. Oedipus could stop at any clew he had found, but he refused to give up until the truth momentarily came out, and only to find that the real identity of interrogator himself was criminal.
The reason why he failed to get rid of the fate is precisely that he had no doubt of his destiny. Because of this, he left Korinthos. After overcoming various difficulties and get to the Theban, he finally became the king of the kingdom. Besides, marry the beautiful queen. Although Oedipus Rex wanted to show the absurdity of the fate to the Greek, yet he never thought he will get into the trap of destiny. In the processes of finding the truth of Laius’s death, the tragedy performing as the oracle said.