In Oedipus the King, at one point or another the reader (or audience) arrives at the question of Oedipus's guilt. Was he guilty and deserving of his fate, or was he a pawn in the hands of the gods? To the audiences of the day Oedipus was guilty as charged. However, modern audiences do not see it as cut and dried as all of that. Did he really have an option when it came to fighting the unknown man at the crossroads? Many would argue that he did, and that he also did not have to marry the widow (his mother).
