Oedipus Is Both A Saving And Destructive Force For Thebes

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Throughout Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus Rex’, Oedipus acts as both a saving and destructive force for the city of Thebes. He saves the city from the Sphinx and searches for the killer of Laius, the previous king, to cleanse the land and end plague. He is destructive in that he was unwittingly the killer of Laius and therefore the cause of plague and suffering in Thebes. Oedipus leaves immediately without fuss when he is proven, thus saving Thebes again. However, these acts were simply the fate the gods had handed him. He was merely a puppet controlled by the gods, therefore the saving and destructive forces were not those of Oedipus but rather the gods.
The theme of ‘Oedipus Rex’ is fate. It is meant to tell the audience that the gods have complete control and that one cannot change what is meant to be. Sophocles tells the story of a man, Oedipus, who could not rewrite his destiny, though all efforts were put in place to change it. When Oedipus was first born to King Laius of Thebes and his wife Jocasta, the god Apollo told of his terrible fate. Oedipus speaks of it:
‘I must marry my mother…and kill my father’1
His parents could not let this awful fate prevail so they gave the child to their servant, a shepherd, to leave on a mountainside to die. Had this have been done by the shepherd, the subsequent events would have been prevented but one cannot mess with fate. The shepherd, not having the heart to leave a baby to die, gave him to another shepherd who then passed him on to his Lord, the King of Corinth, Polybus, who decided to keep the child and raise him as though he was his own. Thus, Oedipus was allowed to live and to fulfil his horrible fate and in doing so become a very destructive force for Thebes.
As a man Oedipus fled the safety of Corinth after hearing of his awful destiny from the gods and running away for fear of killing his father, whom he believed was Polybus. It was fate that on this journey he wou...