We all want to believe that we have a choice in this world about how our lives will unfold. We want to know that things can change, and success is obtainable. However, do things happen because we decide they will or because there is a greater plan that is falling into place? “Oedipus the King”, by Sophracles, is about a man named Oedipus born with a prophecy stating that he would marry his mother and murder his father. The story takes place in his middle years when he is the king of a land called Thebes. He becomes king after killing a sphinx that had been terrorizing the people. Unfortunately this initiated a curse over the city causing deaths and plagues. According to an oracle, the only way to stop the plagues is to avenge the death of, the former king of Thebes, Laius. While attempting to solve the murder of Laius it becomes apparent that Oedipus is not only the son of Laius and his…show more content… Oedipus grew up in Corinth thinking that Polybus and Merope, the king and queen, were his parents. When he was old enough he went to Delphi to learn about his future and was disturbed to hear the same prophecy Jocasta and Laius had heard at his birth. The prophecy told him that “[he is] fated to couple with [his] mother, [he] will bring a breed of children no man can bare to see—[he] will kill [his] father” (205). In order to protect his family, he fled his country, “always running toward some place [he] would never see the shame of all those oracles come true” (205). However, what he didn’t know was that Polybus and Merope were not his parents and on his journey from home he “reached that very spot where the great king” (205) Laius met his death. He had run into them and feeling threatened he “killed them all—every mothers son” (206), even his own father. Oedipus only finds out years later when the story all starts to come together. Instead of avoiding his fate, he had sealed