Plays are a powerful vehicle by which writers can express opinions and reflect on issues within society. Exploration of social issues can be expressed through personal or domestic conflict depicted in the drama. The ancient Greek playwright, Sophocles, used his play, Oedipus the King, as a medium for social criticism, to expose the follies of society and to encourage the people to learn from the moral of the tragedy.

Oedipus the King is the story of Oedipus and his attempt to escape his fate, as declared by Apollo's oracle, that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. It so happens that upon knowledge of this, Oedipus' mother and father, Jocasta and Laius, desert him at birth to die on the mountain-side, `feet cruelly pierced with an iron pin so that he might not even crawl to safety' (p.23). Oedipus was rescued by a shepherd...