Free Essays - Jocasta is Not to Blame in Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex)

Oedipus enters the separation part of the second stage, the initiation, when the blind "seer" Tiresias charges that Oedipus himself is the cause of the pestilence. Oedipus goes through denial and then separates from himself through self-examination. Although warned to refrain from the search by his wife/mother, Jocasta, Oedipus continues to seek out the truth. This truth seeking leads to the transformation where Oedipus realizes that he is responsible. He had killed his father (although at the time he did not know Laius was his father) and married his mother (he did not know this either),thereby causing the plague.

In the beginning of this tragedy, Oedipus took many actions leading to his own downfall. He tried to escape Corinth when he learned of the prophecies that were supposed to take place in his life. Instead, he fell right into the trap of the prediction by unwittingly killing his father and later marrying his mother. By doing this, he proved that his life was predetermined by fate and there was nothing he could do to change it. He could have waited for the plague to end, but out of compassion for his suffering people, he had Creon go to Delphi to plead before Apollo to relieve the curse of the plague.

Like his father, Oedipus also sought ways to escape the horrible destiny told by the oracle of Apollo. The chorus warns us of man's need to have reverence for the gods, and the dangers of too much pride. "But if a man tread the ways of arrogance; fear not justice, honour not the gods enshrined; evil take him! Ruin be the prize of his fatal pride!”Oedipus' unyielding desire to uncover the truth about Laius' murder and the mystery surrounding his own birth, led him to the tragic realization of his horrific deeds.

However, you and I depicted no remorse over the slaughter of innocent people. Only when I realized I had killed my father did I feel the grief of murdering. It has come to my attention that under impulse, you have assassinated Polonius; the King’s chief counselor. I know that you do not feel the penance for killing but I urge you to control your fury before something pernicious arises. Incest is one of the worst sins one could commit, especially between parents.

According to Jocasta, “Apollo said that he would die at the hand of a child-- of mine”, meaning that King Laius was warned that if he married Jocasta and had a child with her it would result in his own downfall. Laius, of course, disregards this warning, sentencing all characters to suffer for his misdeeds because he meets the conditions. Inversely, Oedipus’ punishing fate is resultant of this decision rather than of his own actions. He is the tool that must be used to bring calamity on the house of Thebes without option. On several occasions he does everything that he can to avoid misfortune, but in his attempts to avoid calamity, his resulting actions spurn on the inevitable.

This fulfills the first property of a tragic hero. Laius also experiences pain that had been partially self-inflicted. He sent his son, Oedipus, away to be killed at an early age, and in the end, it was this discarded son that killed him. Laius then must have realized that this "pain" was the result of allowing others to do his dirty work. If he had had the courage to kill the infant himself, then the misfortune of dying at the hand of his son would have been avoided.

We might know that what we are about to do is wrong, but we 'll still go through with it because we don 't want to look weak, this is actually what Macbeth did. He went through with the plan to kill King Duncan after he had the Pep Talk with wife. His wife was willing to kill the King without any remorse at all, but she said that the King looked like his old man so she didn 't do it. The King has never done anything bad to Macbeth and his wife, but he good to them. Power is an incredible thing, it will make a person do the craziest thing that he or she never imagine.

Oedipus is once again controlled by this power when he leaves the place of his child hood after he hears that he is to kill his father and marry his mother. "I shall shrink from nothing...to find the the murderer of Laius...You are the murderer..." Oedipus tried to stop the prophecy from coming true by leaving Corinth and only fate can make Oedipus turn to the road where he kills his true father. Leaving Corinth makes Oedipus lose his childhood by making him worry of such issues young people should not have to worry about and becoming a king of a strange land. Last of all, Oedipus carries the last part of the prophecy out, marrying his mother. " I would... never have been known as my mother's husband.

This blindness contributes to his vehement and steadfast decision to exile the murderer, even if the murderer is a member of the royal family. Thus, Oedipus, not fate, is responsible for his choice to exile to murderer and make it known to the public. As the play progresses we see Oedipus continuing to exercise free will, but his character interferes in a way that encourages his failure. He summons Tiresias because he seeks the truth about Laius’s death, except Tiresias is reluctant to tell Oedipus. Naturally, Oedipus indicts Tiresias and forces him to divulge the information.

There were things Oedipus could not grasp and is innocent of but there were things he must be tried guilty for. From conception the Oracle has been a factor in Oedipus’ life. He was destined to kill his Father, Laius, and because of his parents attempts to change this prophecy it ultimately doomed them. The prophecy told to Oedipus by the Oracle said that he would kill his father and ma...