... a set up by Creon and plans to judge death or exile upon him. Oedipus turns to Jocasta the Queen and his wife, who is his mother and Creon's sister, to set things straight. She, as widowed wife to King Laius, recalls the story of the visit from an oracle to Laius that told him how his own ... son would be the one to cause his death, and how in the fear of this fate, Laius bound his three-day-old son's ankles and disposed of him on an uninhabited mountain. Oedipus was sent away from ... of the house of King Laius. At that climax, Jocasta realizes the dreadful truth. She did not wish to s...

• Word Count: 1933
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... 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. The ... vagueness about Oedipus' intellectual state can be interpreted as unconscious knowledge, which may make him morally culpable. Guilty ... ...

• Word Count: 631
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... an illustration of the social function of literature - encouraging the reader to question and delve deeper rather than assuming one version to be correct. Oedipus also is a study in ideology, paralleling itself with texts such as The Waste Land and Paradise Lost. Some ideological concerns, however, may ... have been altered during translation as preconceived notions and ideals often rule interpretation. The issues raised by King Oedipus such as incest, parricide, genetics, values and faith are all relative to that period in time. Subjects that may have been taboo during ... has been paro...

• Word Count: 1933
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate