The art of writing has been displayed through timeless classics and modern tales that bring people together, but whether a piece is written in the 4th century BC or the 1990s, all authors captivate their audiences by connecting to them to the story and establishing an emotional connection to its characters, plot, or theme. Stories such as Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare’s play MacBeth, or Tim O’Brien’s novel The Things They Carried establish intriguing storylines which develop emotional connections and relationships between the audience and the text. Throughout all three works, fear is a motif that is used to express the theme of main characters sharing a fear of displaying weakness. Characters in Oedipus Rex, MacBeth, and The Things They Carried establish fear as a motive for using poor judgement and acting out to protect themselves from displaying weakness.
The 429 BC play Oedipus Rex, by the dramatist Sophocles, introduces the character of Oedipus, the King of Thebes; a man who learns of a prophecy in which he will murder his father and sleep with his mother. In the book, after Oedipus learns of this prophecy, he fears that he will commit these vile acts and be guilty knowing that they may happen and he will have to live with it. While talking to Jocasta, the Queen of Thebes and Oedipus’ wife, about Teiresias’ prophecy, he says “And more he added, dread and dire and dark, how that the doom of incest lay on me, most foul, unnatural” (Sophocles 817-819), which