Greek plays were written to tell a moral dilemma. Sophocles' piece, Oedipus the King, told his audience about an incredibly vital lesson they need to learn. The most important feature in their life is the Gods. The Gods made all the decisions about everyone's lives. The people had no way to choose what path they would take, because the Gods determined their fate. Fate is unfavorable destiny or doom. A major issue in the play was that fate was responsible for the people's destiny, more than choice. As the audience witnesses the play, it is obvious that this issue is debated throughout the course of this Greek tragedy. .
Sophocles sets up by telling the story of how Oedipus' fate was decided at birth. In the play, Oedipus' life was to be a catastrophe, based on the murdering of his own father and become his mother's husband. His parents however thought they could alter the fate upon Oedipus' life into a choice made by his mother and father, so they sent for him to be killed. This obviously did not come to happen, and Oedipus was still cursed with the fate the Gods rested upon him. In the beginning of the play, Sophocles informs his readers of the Theban legend that his play was based on. In the legend it is question, "could any mortal be so presumptuous as to try to thwart it?" (23). It is pondered whether a human can change, with choice, the way of the gods. It is answered later in the play that nothing can change the path of fate. .
As the play continues, the inquiry persists. When Oedipus hears what the blind prophet, Teiresias, has come to tell, his fate begins to unravel. However, whether his fate really has come to be true is still questioned. The chorus describes the battle at hand. "Terrible things indeed has the prophet spoken. We cannot believe, we cannot deny; alls dark." (39) The chorus is describing to the audience the difficulty of believing whether or not Oedipus's fate is true, or if it is still in the hands of the mortals.
