Once the prophet Teiresias began helping Creon, Oedipus accused him of being untruthful. The last prophecy Teiresias gives is that “He will be blind, although he now can see.550 He will be a poor, although he now is rich. He will set off for a foreign country,groping the ground before him with a stick”(Sophocles, Oedipus). Unbenoiscent to Oedipus, this prophecy was towards him, thus it was inevitable. After finding out that Oedipus was her son, Jocasta, Oedipus's wife hangs herself.
However, they do not ensure the death of their son by murdering him themselves. Although the intent was to kill Oedipus, Jokasta and Laius are attempting to avoid the natural inclination to feel guilty for the direct death of their son. Similarly, the shepherd’s decision to give Oedipus a second chance at life demonstrates a human inability to show violence towards something innocent, such as a young child. Furthermore, Oedipus’ denial upon learning that the death of the king was his own doing, demonstrates human ignorance. As human beings it is often hard to be told we are wrong or that the decisions we have made in life have led to severe consequences.
Oedipus’ peripeteia occurs when he comes to the realization that he fulfilled the prophecy by killing his father and marrying his mother. The panic and fear Oedipus carried with him of the prophecy coming to fruition becomes his reality, where everything he knew was never his decision. In the midst of his panic before the reality he knows is pulled under his feet, Jocatsa attempts to calm Oedipus down, by telling him that prophecies can be defied. Jocasta tells Oedipus how her previous husband, Laius, and herself defied their prophecies, just like he can. She tells Oedipus of her prophecy, “It was said Laius was fated to be killed by a child of ours, one born to him and me.”
In the playwright “Oedipus the King”, by Sophocles, the protagonist Oedipus has learned that his prophecy is destined for him to marry his mother Jocasta
(Sophocles 711-721). It was Jocasta’s belief in the oracle’s words that set off a cause and effect reaction of the queen believing she was able to avoid the prophecy instead of adhering to it. This is an example of hubris and it is this flaw which she possessed, along with her beliefs, which was able to convey the theme of the play through character. This same prophecy also factors into the shepherd’s actions. He is given the child, “[but] still the word of Apollo- and human
Niya Kebreab King Oedipus: Moral Ambiguity In the play King Oedipus, Sophocles depicts Oedipus’ inevitable downfall, which represents man’s struggle between free will and fate. In an attempt to use the audience’s knowledge to his advantage, Sophocles opens the play seventeen years after Oedipus murders his father, Laius and marries his mother, Jocasta. The sequence in which the story unravels reveals the strong psychological focus towards Oedipus’ character. In search of his identity, Oedipus’ enigmatic quality and moral ambiguity compels readers to question whether his ignorance renders him morally blameless.
Not only did he affect himself in the end but everyone around him that he knew. All because of his characteristics such as his pride, his arrogance, unwillingness, and ignorance he made Jocasta realize what she had committed and drove her to suicide. When Oedipus found her he soon met his demise which was losing his mother/wife, his father, gouging out his own two eyes, and banishing himself from the City of
In this play, he has created a marriage that promotes respect towards women. Traditionally, women are not treated as equals in their society, but Sophocles believes otherwise and expresses his opinion through his plays. Sophocles presents that the marriage between Oedipus and Jocasta is respectable and equal. When Oedipus was going through a difficult time, Jocasta became aware of this and wanted nothing else but to help Oedipus find what he was looking for. Oedipus, who is in search of the truth regarding his birth, is questioning Jocasta, looking for answers.
Jocasta was also blind to the fact that Oedipus very well may have murdered Laius. Jocasta heard the oracle state “It said Laius was fated to be killed by a child of ours, one born to him and me.” (Sophocles Line 710). Jocasta should have been more wary of a stranger who arrived immediately after the murder of her husband. She was not however, and it lead to her marrying her own
No more! My pain is hard enough. May you never learn who you are” (47). This portrays how Jocasta wants to prevent Oedipus from learning the truth, thus inducing his blindness. It is likely that Jocasta does this in order to protect Oedipus because her blindness ultimately led to her downfall and death.
Oedipus was getting hints of his prophecy and knowledge. King Oedipus hears Laius prophecy, thebes is looking for laius murder to bring healing to the city. Jocasta doesn't want him to keep searching because she is afraid. “I feel that my own curse now begins to descend on me.” (line 703, part 2)
He was angry because he was appalled that Teiresias would issue such unfavorable prophecies to him. This anger pressured him to seek for answers. Oedipus went to Jocasta for advice. Jocasta is Oedipus’s wife and the mother of his children. Jocasta told Oedipus not to worry about the prophecy because her and her old husband were given a prophecy that they thought they had changed.
Gregory highlights that by Jocasta attempting to meditate in the dispute between Oedipus and Creon, she takes the heroic front to try and sort out things calmly (Gregory 212). Thus, in as much as the plot tricks us to believe that women are the cause of the mayhem, like for the aforementioned case, the underlying fact that they are the victims of circumstances is
Once Oedipus found out about the killing of his father and marrying of his mother, everything goes downhill. Jocasta hangs herself after finding out about her son also being her husband and her son killing her past husband. Oedipus finds her and gouges his eyes out. These events led up to Creon taking over as king and exiling Oedipus soon after his request to be exiled. The few interactions led up to the expulsion of the main character, Oedipus.
The Queen, Jacosta, Oedipus’ wife tells him not to believe in the prophet, because they’ve been wrong before, she then tells Oedipus about how she and King Laius had a son who was prophesied to kill Laius and sleep with her but since the child was supposedly dead the prophecy couldn’t be true. Oedipus becomes a bit weary because as a child an old man told him he was adopted and that one day he’d kill his real father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus did also kill a man at a crossroads which sounded like the way Laius died. Oedipus continued questioning the messenger and found out that he was the man everyone spoke of and Jacosta then comes to the realization that Oedipus is her son and kills herself.
