Oedipus's Quest

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prophet refuses to speak, but finally accuses Oedipus himself of killing Laius. Oedipus orders him to leave, but before he leaves, Tiresias hints of an incestuous marriage, future of blindness, infamy, and wandering. Oedipus then attempts to gain advice from Jocasta. She told him to ignore prophecies because a prophet once told her that Laius, her husband, would be killed by her son. According to Jocasta, the prophecy did not come true because the baby died, and Laius himself was killed by a band of robbers.Oedipus becomes distressed by Jocasta's answers because just before he came to Thebes he killed a man who resembled Laius. To learn the truth, Oedipus sends for the only living witness to the murder, a shepherd. Another worry haunts Oedipus as a young man, he learned from an oracle that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. When Oedipus heard the prophecy that he is going to kill his father and sleep with his mother he ran away, even when he knew there were ...

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Jocasta is the first to react; she hangs herself in the bedroom. Later, her husband/son finds her, takes her body down, and then proceeds to tear his eyes out with her pins. As he is stabbing at his eyes, he cries" You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness—blind!" Not only were Oedipus and Jocasta's reactions to the truth very extreme and passionate, they were also completely their own. Since the very truth that caused Oedipus to choose to blind himself and Jocasta to choose to commit suicide was the fact ...

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