Having Decoded the Sphinx’s

Having decoded the Sphinx's riddle and rescued the city of Thebes from destruction, Oedipus is named their king. Although a plague is devastating Thebe's people, and many bird entrails and oracles strongly propose it is due to the murderer of the last king, Laius, still living in the kingdom and is unpunished. In order to alleviate everyone, including himself, he sets out to investigate the blood shed. Because of this searching, Oedipus is lead to find out he himself is the cause of Laius's death, and married his queen, Jocasta. This prompts him to then figure out he and the dead king, have a relationship, he is his true father. meaning his mother is Jocasta, the woman who is the mother to his four children is also his mother, tying back to an earlier prognostication, because oracles and bird entrails are of truth. As a result, Jocasta commits suicide, by hanging herself and Oedipus gouges his own two eyes out with her jewelry. After he does so, he declares himself to be forever exiled from Thebes.

As the audience, who is fully equipped with the plot of this particular story, listens to Jocasta's self-confident and in-denial words, they become uncomfortable She tries to convince Oedipus, and herself, that incest is of a commonplace, by the utilization of a startling lightness that will return back to her, only to haunt her. These lines are of catastrophic nature, because Jocasta has no indication that her baffling words are ironic, inaccurate to the highest degree, and absurd. While one continues to see the story unfold, their opinion is of similarity with Tiresias, knowledge enriched, resulting in pain for others as well as the person itself. Formerly, it is of significance to realize, a fraction of the irony in the lines is dependent upon the play, and the audience, condemning Jocasta for her lack of sight. She makes a declaration of Since Fate rules us.. and suggest that her husband, Oedipus ...should live only for the present day., hit the nail exactly on the head when it comes to beliefs of just about everyone related to the piece, no limited to Jocasta herself. Oedipus sent his brother-in-law Creon to the oracle, and would not have done so if if he had faith in events that were determined unsystematically.

Neither would Oedipus flee Corinth after laying his ears upon the prophecy of the oracle, stating that he would be the one at the hands of his father's death and the man in his mother's bed. Similarly, Jocasta would not have tied her baby's ankles and told one to get rid of it, resulting in the abandonment of this baby in the mountains. The play continuously come back to the fact of prophecies coming true, and the expressions of the high powers must be listened to and obeyed. The audience sees Jocasta, as she truly is, one who only believes in the prophecies that suit her. It is exemplified in her abandoning her son in the mountains, because it was prophesied that her son would be the murderer of her husband, Laius, even though she wholeheartedly believed her husband's blood was not shed by her son. Jocasta finds the words of the oracle to be of no value, worthless, making her ignorant to the inevitable truth. She does this exact thing again with Oedipus, when the truth steers into a horrific disclosure and tries to steer it another way, by saying everything is at random, including one's actions.

Cite this page