... to destroy itself. Civil justice is served when the citizens of Thebes reward him by delegating him as their king, prompting him to marry Jocasta, oblivious of the fact that she is his mother. In time, with extreme revulsion, Oedipus realizes that he has unintentionally fulfilled the prophecy ... the status of the Theban King and Queen because they feel insulted that these mortals receive almost as much acclaim as they do. Laius and Jocasta, after giving birth to Oedipus, follow tradition to consult a Delphic oracle about the future of their child. To their dismay, the oracle prophesie...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... necessary to understand the circumstances that brought him to his downfall. Oedipus' tragedy begins in Thebes before his birth. Shortly before the birth of their son, King Laius and Queen Jocasta received word of a chilling prophecy. They were warned that their newborn son would grow up and kill his father and then shortly after marry and have children with his mother ... . In order to avoid this horrible fate, Laius and Jocasta decide to abandon their infant son in the mountains, and never look back. After a series of strange events, Oedipus ends up in Thebes, where he is crowned King a...

• Word Count: 1007
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... arrogant; he refuses to belief the words of fate, which have been told to him many times. Oedipus's past helped in forming his character. He was abandoned by Laius and Jocasta after they were told that their unborn son would kill him and marry her. The three-day-old Oedipus was given to a shepherd, who was ordered to leave him in ... at his past, the reader can tell that Oedipus was destined to fail. Oedipus has mixed relationships with the other characters. After defeating the Sphinx, Oedipus was presented the widowed Jocasta and was made king. He is a loving husband and father to thei...

• Word Count: 862
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... love with his mother. An example of Oedipus selling himself on how he is not a subject of the prophecy would be when he gossips with his wife jocasta and tells her, "So! Why then, Jocasta, should we study Apollo's oracle, or gaze at the birds screaming over our heads-those prophets who announced that I would kill my father? He's dead, buried, below ... shows how Oedipus is content, and seems like he done with the prophecy-without any fear of it possibly still haunting him. Oedipus poked his eyes out with knives, and Jocasta hung herself in her bedroom. The truth came out and Oedipus slo...

• Word Count: 601
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... said, Oedipus still doesn't get that he is the one that killed Laius and continues probing about the past. A second person Oedipus refuses to stop probing for more answers is Jocasta. He keeps on asking her many times if she recalls anything about her son or the death of Laius. Again, hints are passed both ways that Oedipus and ... Jocasta might be related, such as when Jocasta says that Laius looked almost exactly like Oedipus but had grey hair. Once more, Oedipus continues to investigate. He ultimately persists in questioning a low class shepherd and ... ...

• Word Count: 1090
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... truth. He is an essential plot device in King Oedipus. The shepherd is related to the plot in two ways. In the past he had been entrusted with Oedipus by Jocasta and was ordered to destroy the baby. The shepherd who hadn't the heart to do so gave the child to a messenger, saving Oedipus" life. Without him, Oedipus wouldn't have lived ... "Twill be my death to tell it". His frightened attitude over revealing the truth pushes him to turn the attention towards Jocasta in order to save himself. He says "Your lady could tell the truth of it." This move thereby involves Jocasta in the affair,...

• Word Count: 483
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Oedipus is told that he is the criminal of whom he is looking for, he becomes very angry and calls Teiresias a blabbering moron. However, when he arrives home, his wife, Jocasta, knows that what was said is true; Oedipus must now try to prove himself innocent. He calls the two shepards, one who unbound him on the mountainside, and the other ... first goes through denial, because he does not want to believe he is the criminal. He blames his children and curses them so they will live a horrible life as well. Jocasta commits suicide, and Oedipus thinks it is his fault. He is fed up with se...

• Word Count: 984
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Thebes, could not escape the fate that the oracle predicted for him; he was destined to kill his father (Laius) and marry his mother (Jocasta). Antigone is the product of that ill-fated union between Oedipus and Jocasta. Antigone is fated to obey the divine law, burying her brother, and spurn the human law of Creon, regardless of the consequences. Also, the ... ...

• Word Count: 762
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 ... ...

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

... events that made Oedipus a very moral man were when he saved Thebes and when attempted to solve the murder of the previous King Laius. After having a conversation with his wife Jocasta, and hearing how Laius was killed at a fork in the road, Oedipus told her that he killed people there and was by himself. Oedipus, then being confused sent out for ... ...

• Word Count: 854
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... seeing ones you love and know come and fall to death. Creon lived to see the murder of his brother in law, King Laius; the suicide of his sister, Queen Jocasta; the self destruction and death of his friend/brother-in-law/nephew, Oedipus; the death of his two nephews, Polyneices and Eulicles. Although all these deaths had a great impact on ... ...

• Word Count: 785
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... they could do to stop this prophecy from becoming reality. Eventually, a man found Oedipus and raised him as his own. Oedipus eventually killed his father, Laius, and married his mother, Jocasta. As Sophocles said, "men are helpless so far as their fate is concerned- Fate and character are intertwined in this story. There are certain characteristics that can feed bad fate ... ...

• Word Count: 1207
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... do anything about what went on throughout her kingdom, besides the servants that she supervised in her home. In the story of King Oedipus of the Sophocles Tragedy, his wife Jocasta keeps a haunting secret from him. Jocaster isn't really like any of the other wives around the kingdom. She actually has the right to speak and have her opinions considered. Her ... ...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School