The main element in Oedipus Tyrannus centers on the finality of fate: no matter how hard characters try to escape, hinder, or alter their fate, it catches up and overthrows them in the end. This manifests in three ways: The first is how characters rely on oracles. The second is Laius and Jocasta's attempt to murder their child to avoid future calamity. The third is Oedipus's decision to flee his homeland for fear of harming his parents unwillingly.
             All of the characters rely on oracles like the oracle of Delphi and prophets like Teresias. In the book there is a plague in Thebes and Oedipus sends Creon to the oracle of Delphi. He also sends for Teresias. This is a firm belief in fate.
             King Laius and Jocasta try to escape the hideous prophecy of the oracle by pinning Oedipus' ankles together when he is a child. Laius gives Oedipus to a servant to be disposed of. Jocasta tells Oedipus: "an oracle came to Laius once from the pythian priests...(he told him) that he would die at the hands of his own child, his child and mine...the child--when he was three days old, Laius drove pins into his ankles and handed him to someone to cast upon a deserted mountain path--to die. And so Apollo's prophecy was unfulfilled--the child did not kill his father.
             In the beginning of this tragedy, Oedipus took many actions leading to his own downfall. He tried to escape Corinth when he learned of the prophecies that were supposed to happen in his life. Instead, he fell right into the trap of the prediction by unintentionally killing his father and later marrying his mother. When Oedipus finds out the truth about what happened he says: "O God! O No! I see it now! All clear! O Light! I will never look on you again! Sin! Sin in my birth! Sin in my marriage! Sin in blood!" Oedipus's life was predetermined by fate and there was nothing he could do to change it.
             In conclusion, no matter how hard you try, you can't escape fate. All of the p
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