Tragedies have inspired innumerable numbers of people throughout the ages to make themselves better and more like the tragic heroes they read about, yet they have also brought various questions to mind. Different critics will argue what exactly causes the outcome of the tragedy. Some say that the choice of a person overrides his destiny, and his decisions prove his future true. Others will affirm the contrary- that fate determines all and subsists as an inevitable occurrence, and the outcome transpires because of the earlier predictions. Some particular tragedies, such as Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, inspire strong arguments that both the person's decisions and destiny establishes the result. A combination of human choice and fate caused the tragic outcome of Oedipus the King, for kismet eventually overcame Oedipus' beliefs and doubts, yet his actions and decisions presented a crucial aspect in causing the catastrophic finale.
             Fate caused the tragic outcome in Oedipus the King for the prophecies all came true, which influenced the disastrous conclusion. One of Oedipus' ancestors, Cadmus, had killed Apollo's favorite snake, thus dooming all his descendants to a curse prophesied to each generation by Apollo's oracle. Oedipus' curse - that he would kill his father and marry his mother- proved true, despite his lack of understanding and disgust at the prophecy. Unbeknownst to him, Oedipus had murdered his father in the chariot, but because people thought him dead, no one understood that the murder started the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy. When Oedipus solved the Sphinx's riddle and offered Jocasta's hand in marriage, Thebes' joy at the relief of the Sphinx overran any possible suspicions about Oedipus' marriage to his mother. When a plague hit Thebes because Laius' murderer lived within the city, unpunished for the crime, Oedipus ironically opened an investigatio...