terribly for it, plucking out his own eyes as punishment. This result is a direct consequence of the fatal flaw within him and of his discovery of this fact.
Oedipus's fate is indeed determined before the action of the play, and for that matter it is determined when he is born. 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 any more than they recognize him. Oedipus's fall comes as he learns of what he has done and is punished for it. In the Greek view, man is responsible for his actions and must suffer the consequences, though this is difficult to reconcile with the plot of the play because Oedipus's actions are both ordained and undertaken without guilty knowledge. Neither of these factors are considered by the Greeks to reduce his level of guilt, however, and thus a terrible punishment is visited upon him for something over which he had no control. While he might have exercised more caution in order not to kill anyone who might be his father or to marry any older woman who might be his mother, there is still the question of whether he could ever have avoided his fate, which was foretold by the oracle and which thus presumably had to come true.
Oedipus is clearly a person of importance, and thus his story is worthy of treatment in tragedy. The reason why the high-born are the subject of tragedy is given by the Chorus at the end of the play, stating that Oedipus "rose to power [and was] a man beyond all power" (line 1680):
Who could behold his greatness without envy?
Now what a black sea of terror has overwhelmed him.
Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day,
count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last (lines 1681-1684).
In other words, the story of the tragic hero s...