Justice in drama

Oedipus in Oedipus Rex is the ruler of the city of Thebes at the beginning of the play and so is the human being charged with assuring that justice is done in human terms, yet he will himself transgress the laws of the gods without intending to do so. Oedipus' fate is indeed determined before the action of the play. His parents are told by the oracle at Delphi that their son would one day kill his father and marry his mother. They abandon the child, assuming that he has died, but he has not and many years later does kill his father and marry his mother, all without knowing who they are. Changes take place in the environment, with storms and the like, and are caused by the crime committed by Oedipus when he fulfilled the prophecy about killing his father and marrying his mother. The people have learned from the oracle that someone is a criminal in the kingdom, and Oedipus vows to ferret out the culprit, not knowing that he is looking for himself. The fact that the environment changes because a king has committed a crime is itself a manifestation of the supernatural and a recognition of the fact that a king has special responsibilities as the leader of his people--he in effect represents the masses and further has a special