It is all the elements of Oedipus¡¯ character that accounted for his downfall, not his inborn fiendishness or any revolting atrocities he had committed. The whole play revolves around and develops along with the revelation and transformation of every respect of his dispositions, such as self-confidence, impetuosity, skepticism, and so forth, which step by step spawned his self-knowledge and self-destruction.

Oedipus¡¯ pride sets off the whole tragedy, as an old man doubts his identity of a prince in Corinth, such an injury to his dignity that he eventually goes to the oracle of Apollo to seek the truth, only to learn of dreadful things ¡ª that he should kill his father and marry his mother. In the immediate event of the play, Oedipus¡¯ overconfidence in human intelligence continues to be a flaw. Regardless of Apollo¡¯s warnings he has never been less reckless whenever in the presence of people...