What is the conflict in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex?

Two predominant conflicts in Oedipus Rex are Human against
Fate and Human against Self. All through the play, Oedipus, in a Human against Fate
conflict, is unwittingly chasing the very fate he is trying to escape. Indeed, Oedipus
was meant to be left as dead as an infant for the purpose of outwitting and escaping
fate. As Oedipus's actions in the end of the play and his final exile show, he wholly
and completely failed to escape his fate in any way. Therefore, Sophocles makes a strong
statement advocating the power of Fate over
humankind.

O
cloud of night,
Never to be turned away: night coming on,
I can not
tell how: night like a
shroud!

Oedipus struggles in
an inward direction throughout the play against his hubris, which is defined as
excessive, detrimental arrogance and pride. This hubris is his tragic flaw and the
substance of his Human against Self conflict. It is Oedipus's hubris that leads him to
require the disclosure of the fateful information held by Creon and Teiresias. It is,
likewise, his hubris that leads him to swear to discover the identity of the murderer of
King Laius and punish him fully. The conflict of Oedipus against self here, of course,
is that Oedipus himself is the murder and the one whom he is sworn to discover and
punish.

Again, it is clear in the ending of the play that Oedipus is
wholly and completely incapable of coming out of this conflict victoriously, even though
he has opportunity to step away from the conflict--he fails to do this because he fails
to recognize there is a conflict, because he fails to recognize his hubris. Therefore,
Sophocles makes a strong statement about our helplessness against our own inner flaws,
about which we are blind--unless someone, like a Creon, can convince us to see
rightly.

Then
once more I must bring what is dark to light.
[...]
You shall see
how I stand by you, as I should,
To avenge the city and the city's
god.