Does Oedipus Deserve His Fate

What if destiny can be changed? Is escaping your fate ever a good thing? Is it ever a good idea to try to escape your destiny? In the tragic Greek play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, a man escapes his given fate and establishes a new life by being the King of Thebes. Sadly, the city is going through a plague and by trying to fix this, Oedipus’ fate comes back to him, a Prophecy which stated that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Once finding out the truth, he impales brooches into his eyes. Oedipus does deserve his fate because of the promises he makes to his people, the fact that his ignorance and pride get the best of him, and because Oedipus should realize that he cannot escape his own destiny. First of all, Oedipus' pride and ignorance blinded him from finding out the truth. When Oedipus
In the beginning of the play, Oedipus sends Creon to find out how to get rid of the plague. When Creon arrives he says that the only way to get rid of the plague is, “By exile or death” (7). This proves that Oedipus brought upon his own fate because he was determined to get rid of the plague including that the punishment would be exile or death. Yes, he is unaware that he is responsible for the crime, but that was the only way to bring peace to Thebes.
To conclude, Oedipus did deserve his fate because you cannot escape destiny. He brought the punishment on himself by his ignorance, and Laius and Jocasta’s contribution to his fate. One of the lessons taught by the play is that you cannot escape destiny because either way it will still find you. Perhaps Oedipus’s self-blinding is a punishment that goes too far, but he still deserves his punishment for his terrible acts. It would be interesting to see how things could have ended up differently had these characters faced their