Karna was born when his mother, Kunti tries to test out a newly given boon. She calls Lord Surya and receives a son, born with earrings and armor. She is still unmarried and is scared of getting her character maligned. So she puts the neonate in a basket and throws him in river Ganga; thereby he is received by a couple, who do not have kids of their own and happen to be the charrioter of King Dhritarashtra.Karna is the most unfortunate character in Mahabharata. And all this misfortunes collected by him in his due course of time leads to his death eventually. Lets see the series of misfortunate events of Karna's life:
Karna was compromised when he approaches Drona for education. Then he receives his education from Parasuram. Karna, while serving as his student knows only one truth that he is son of a charrioter. There is a incidence once that Parsuram is resting on Karna's thighs and a scorpio bites him. He holds the pain so that his teacher's sleep is not disturbed. When Parshuram opens his eyes and sees that Karna is drenched in blood he curses him that he will forget his learnings when he most needed it because he hid truth from him about him being a Kshatriya. Unfortunately even Karna is not aware of this truth then.
Much later after Karna becomes angraj, as anointed by Duryodhan. He is out to win battles and to add on more territories to Hastinapur kingdom. Karna accidently kills a cow belonging to a sage. Who is very angry and cursed Karna that one day when he needs this the most his ratha will sink in the ground leading him to fall from his chariot. It will be then perhaps he shall realise the plight of common man. Alas this happens when he was fighting Arjun on 14th Day of Kurukshetra.
Kunti can't hold on to her motherly instincts and hence heads out to meet her elder son Karna, immediately after he steps out of Ganga. She narrates the story of her unfortunate motherhood. Karna is annoyed and rightly so because Kunti chose this time of the day and place to meet his son, where he is known to give alms and grants. Kunti agrees to this and in returns asks Karna to spar the lives of her sons. Karna says that Kunti is known to have 5 sons and even after Mahabharata she will continue to have all 5 sons. He commits not killing any Pandav but Arjun. He says that killing Arjun is his ultimate goal of his life and he can't forego that. But its clear that either he will die or Arjun will, hence Kunti will have 5 sons always.
Some days before the Kurukshetra war begins; Indra come to Karna dressed as a Brahmin and asks for alms in form of Karna's earrings and warrier vest. Indra is worried about his son Arjun and that he can't kill Karna unless these devine objects are removed from his body. Karna being Karna hands him the objects knowing that this Brahmin is actually Indra. Indra is happy with Karna and in turn gives him his Divya Astra, which is unfailable and can only be used once.
12th Day of Kurukshetra; Ghatotkach, son of Bhim and Hidimba joins the war. He is a demon and hence starts killing Kaurava army by dozens. This makes Duryodhan very worried and he requests Karna to use his divyaastra given to him by Indra. Karna refuses as he intends to use it on Arjun but on insistence by Duryodhan uses it on Ghatotkach, who dies instantly.
On day 14th of Kurukshetra, when Arjun and Karna are fighting each other; Krishna uses all his might to keep Arjun's Rath intact and on ground. Only the blows by Karna are enough to blow it to pieces. Krishna admits that it was the only time in this war that he used his heavenly powers so that Arjun can kill Karna. Despite that Karna was killed by Arjun when his chariot sinks into ground, as he is cursed for; this is the time when Karna is weapon less and scared as he has forgotten all his learnings of war.
Now look at the sequence of these incidences, and tell me was it fair on Karna to undergo all the misfortune singlehandedly? All that this great warrior wanted was a recognition and felicitation that he is the greatest archeror of his time.
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