By stressing the importance and seriousness of one’s fate, Sophocles suggests that people cannot …show more content…
However, his very nature of being good leads him to his “hamartia” or mistake, which is still on par with the traits of a tragic hero, because he unintentionally is at fault for his own downfall, though mostly due out of lack of knowledge. Since he believed that Polybus and Merope were his actual parents, Oedipus ran from his home to not allow the oracle’s prophecy to become true. Nonetheless that very action leads him to carry out the prophecy that he so desperately wished to evade. Even as Oedipus starts to piece together the very truth that leads to his demise, the people around him warn him that he should not hear the truth, yet due to his good character and vow to find Laius’ murderer in order to clear out the “darkness” that has befallen the city, he pleads that “it needs [to] be [heard]” (70). This makes it evident that Oedipus’ actions though on their own without context are crimes, it is his very ignorance which allows him- a good man- to commit such horrendous acts, because he is willing to gain knowledge that many around him know will bring about his downfall in order for his people to find peace and