People's words can influence changes in our lives, but ultimately, everyone controls their own decisions. Life can be in the hands of the gods, but life can be in the hands of everyone. Oedipus' downfall is entirely self-inflicted. He was given a second chance at life and his personality really destroyed him because he invites misfortune. He was given a choice, a crossroads, but the choices he makes reflect on his personality. Thanks to his arrogant and deterministic temperament, he led himself into a dark spiral of consequences of bad choices by questioning reluctant people. The people with the greatest power will experience the greatest downfall. Oedipus is guilty of pride; he is a man of excessive pride. For a supposedly intelligent person, he made the choice to run away instead of confronting his "parents", thinking he could thwart the prophecy. From then on, he chose to kill a man old enough to be his father. Furthermore, he chooses to solve the riddle of the Sphinx and accept marriage to a woman old enough to be his mother. After saving Thebes, he prospered with the power he had acquired and his name is a triumph for him, as he says, "...Oedipus, whose name is best known and most feared." (Sophocles 185) As a king, he wants people to respond to his request and Teiresias did not want the truth to be told. Pride is his essence and when he was presented in a negative light, he became really harsh. He chose to accuse Teiresias and Creon of plotting to dethrone him rather than accepting the truth. It was actually Oedipus' choice to invite the prophet because, as he says, Tiresias, "...has exploited all knowledge and all mysteries; you know what the sky hides..." (Sophocles 195). Obviously, Oedipus believes that this... middle of paper ...... sinks into my soul, and there he clings stupidly; this cloud is my own mind – which now wins its fiercest battle and returns to trample me..." (Sophocles 237) He placed a dark loom for himself as many tried to prevent him from going into the darkness to seek the light. This journey toward truth brought him full circle. He started out as a murderer and became a murderer again, losing the essence of his life in the meantime. His personality had made him self-centered and neglected the consequences of others for his desire to capture the truth. The determinism he possessed only helped him move closer to his determined end. If he wasn't arrogant, he could take other people's words into consideration rationally. Oedipus was not limited by his destiny but rather by the knowledge of it. For this, he cannot blame fate for being the cause of his downfall but can only blame himself...