In Sophocles' play "Oedipus the King", a young king learns the lesson that life generally teaches about destiny and the irony of life itself . The theme of this play is destiny and free will, and the realization that one can never change one's own destiny. At the beginning, Oedipus the king learns from his brother-in-law Creon that the oracle has spoken. Creon presents Oedipus with the message from the oracles, saying that the plague will end when the murderer of Laius, former king of Thebes, is arrested and expelled; the murderer is in the city. By analyzing the tragic flaw, tragic fall, and tragic realization of the play, the reader will be able to better understand what lessons lie hidden in Sophocles' writing. First, analyzing the tragic flaw, It is a point of reality for the main character. Oedipus, at the beginning of the play, has great power, great wealth, and a family. But in the end, Oedipus loses his crown, his respect, his daughters and his sight. For example, Oedipus says: “But I am now hated by the gods” (Sophocles 1776). In this play, the gods are everything to man, to be hated by the gods is to be hated by everyone. When Oedipus says this, he becomes aware of his position in the eyes of the gods. This is one of Oedipus' tragic downfalls during the play. At the very end of the play, Oedipus says: “Don’t take them away from me” (Sophocles 1776). The king now has a major tragic flaw when he realizes he is losing his children as well. The tragic fall of Oedipus hits him very hard, when he loses his crown, his family and the respect of the gods. The third element of Oedipus the King is the tragic realization, that is, the moment when the character makes a discovery and realizes the changes that have occurred in his story. The theme of Oedipus the King is the realization that a person's destiny can never be changed or rearranged. . A tragic flaw must be present in a play, for it to have meaning and a lesson for all audiences. The tragic fall results from a tragic flaw that accompanies the main character of a play. A tragic realization can only happen if there is a tragic flaw and a tragic fall in a play. These three elements are all so important in a play that without them there would be no lesson or meaning in a play. With the combination of these three tragic elements, Sophocles produced a very powerful and moving play, which has remained alive for thousands of years.