Oedipus the King had one of the worst destinies in all of literature. As a young man he learned of his fate to kill his father and marry his mother. Fleeing his family and seeking refuge from his terrible future in a distant state only brought about the actualization of the forecast. Unbeknownst to Oedipus, he had killed his own father and entered the bed of his mother. He lived in this relationship for many years until at last he painfully revealed the blinding truth over the course of one shocking day. Many have debated whether Oedipus was a good man who happened to suffer a most unfortunate fate, or if he was in fact a truly bad person, whose fate was only just. In my honest opinion, Oedipus was indeed a good man, and the bad that befell him was just a cruel gift of fate from the gods. Oedipus is by nature a noble, admirable, and compassionate person.
             Oedipus is in many ways a noble individual, mainly to the troubled city of Thebes. In his first dealings with the city of Thebes, Oedipus found them under the curse of the Sphinx. He actually gained his position of King of Thebes by rendering unto the city a great service, namely the salvation of the city from the Sphinx's plague. The type of cleverness and practical wisdom Oedipus exhibited in his solution to the riddle is a component of overall goodness. If it were not for Oedipus' virtuous action in saving Thebes, the citizens would have suffered untold disasters at the merciless hands of the Sphinx. In Oedipus' quest for the truth, he established his noble goodness in many ways: When Jocasta pleaded with him to stop his interrogation of the messenger, Oedipus replied "I will not be persuaded to let be the chance of finding out the whole thing clearly." When the herdsman balked at spelling out Oedipus' dreadful fate, Oedipus threatened him, saying "If you'll not talk to gratify me, you will talk with pain to urge you." Oedipus let nothing stop him from h...