222). It seems at this point Jocasta knows and is desperate to make sure that Oedipus doesn't find out. She knows what Oedipus did to the King, she knows that Oedipus is her first son, she knows that she married the boy with the pinned up ankles that she left to die in the mountains. So overwhelmed with the truth and the lies and the crimes, Jocasta reaches her breaking point. She couldn't live with herself anymore. Jocasta ends up taking her own life as a form of punishment upon herself. What the most tragic part about the suicide was, Oedipus witnessed the whole thing, losing his wife and his mother. As most can imagine, this had an affect on him.
After reading this play more than once, there seems to be a gray area, what exactly was Oedipus punished for? Incest if anything, but Oedipus was ignorant towards his actions with Jocasta. The King was banished because he murdered Laius, yet Thebes punished him for being a victim of fate? At the time of the play, it was said that the Greeks believed in the three fates; Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. They wove a man's life and each was bound to his own destiny which was given to him. Though unfair, Oedipus' fate was that he was going to kill his father and marry his mother. All the Greeks know that their actions are not by choice, they are by fate; actions of the Gods. He even says this twice in the play, "Some savage power has brought this down upon my head" (p. 207). As well as "My god, my god - what have you planned to do to me" (p. 202)? Such quotes show that he had no control over his behavior, it was all up to the Gods. Yes, Oedipus' fate is tragic, but that's what he was given and there is no way to change it.
At the end of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, who is the King of Thebes, is forever banished from his kingdom. It is important to keep in mind that the reason Oedipus was searching for Laius' killer was so that he could put an end to the deadly plague that was keeping his kingdom from their daily lives and duties.