Does Oedipus cause his own downfall?

Answer 1

Yes, Theban King Oedipus causes his own downfall by his pride and his tragically flawed decision making. He hears a rumor that he isn't the biological son of Corinthian King Polybus and Corinthian Queen Merope. He doesn't get a straight answer from his parents.

So Oedipus decides to see what the Delphic Oracle has to say. The Oracle doesn't answer Oedipus' question either. Instead, the Oracle says that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother.

In response, Oedipus takes the first step to his downfall through his pride in thinking that he can escape such a horrific fate. He does so through his tragically flawed decision making. He needs to find out who his biological parents are instead of assuming them to be people whose parental identity already is questioned by rumor and by their lack of forthrightness.

Instead, Oedipus decides to flee Delphi and Corinth. The road from Delphi takes him to a crossroads where three roads meet. One of those roads leads to Thebes. Along that road comes a churlish, surly stranger who is none other than Laius, King of Thebes and father of Oedipus. Laius presents an insulting, violent challenge to Oedipus' right of way. Oedipus decides to respond in kind, with the result that he kills a man whom he resembles and who is old enough to be his father.

Oedipus then goes on to Thebes. There, he saves the city from the beastly, bullying Sphinx. He solves the unsolvable riddle of what life form [man] moves on all fours in the morning, on twos in the afternoon, and on threes in the evening. As a reward, he's offered the vacant Theban throne as a job and the grieving widow as a wife. By accepting his rewards, Oedipus decides to marry a woman who is old enough to be his mother.

Much later, a pestilence ravages Thebes of its harvests, its livestock, and its people. From Apollo's shrine it's learned that the killer[s] of Laius must be identified and punished. Oedipus decides upon an automatic punishment of execution or exile. He decides not to look into any mitigating factors. He therefore foredooms his own tragedy of subsequent discovery that he's the killer of his own father and sovereign, and the wedder and bedder of his own mother.

Finally, Oedipus decides to blind himself. His life therefore ends up exactly as it's fated to go as a blind beggar in exile. Fate may be inescapable. But the supreme irony are the albeit unknowing choices and decisions that Oedipus makes every step of the way that take him ever closer to his horrific fate. The harder he tries to flee, the more closely he embraces his nightmarish destiny through the choices and decisions that he freely makes out of his ignorance of the true nature of his identity and the true consequences of his actions.