Oedipus Rex
is a play about the tragedy that follows after an oracle comes to King Laius of Thebes and tells him that the son he has by Jocasta will kill his father and marry his mother. Everything that happens from then on is about a variety of characters trying to overcome fate with their own Free Will. Needless to say, it doesn’t work; and by the end of the tale, Laius and Jocasta are both dead because the gods decided to turn their son against them..
When the oracle comes to Laius and tells him that his son will kill both of his parents, Laius makes a futile attempt to dispose of the child and therefore, avoid his terrible fate.
“...While from our son’s birth not three days went by
Before, with ...
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gives the child to Polybus and his wife Merope, who raise the boy until he reached manhood. Right after that, as Oepipus travels around the countryside, the inevitable happens.
“...When in my travels
I was come near this place where three roads meet,
There met me a herald, and a man that rode
In a colt carriage, as you tell of him,
And from the track the leader, by main force,
And the old man himself, would thrust me. I,
Being enraged, strike him who jostled me--
The driver-- and the old man, when he saw it,
watching as I was passing, from the car
With the goad’s fork struck me upon the head.
He paid, though! duly I say not; but in brief,
Smitten by the staff in this right hand of mine,
Out in the middle of this carriage straight
He rolls down headlong; and I slay them all.”
Oedipus had done what had been fated: he had slayed his father, King Laius. He does not know whom he had killed, nor did he know that his actions had been written in the fates by the gods. He ...
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Oedipus Rex. (2005, January 25). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Oedipus-Rex/21159
"Oedipus Rex." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 25 Jan. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Oedipus-Rex/21159>
"Oedipus Rex." Essayworld.com. January 25, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Oedipus-Rex/21159.
"Oedipus Rex." Essayworld.com. January 25, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Oedipus-Rex/21159.
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