Oedipus is unaware of the realities. During the plague, he addresses people considering them as their children. However, he is still in pride of having solved the old riddle of Sphinx and has sent for his brother-in-law Creon to bring oracle from the Apollo.
Creon returns and later Tiresias points out that the plague is caused due to Oedipus. Oedipus accuses them of plotting against him. However, a messenger from Corinth informs him that Polybus his not father. Oracle also reveals Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, Jocasta. Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus blinds himself after knowing the truth.
His story, thus, has adopted a mythical proportion. Oedipus Complex, a popular psychological term has been named after Oedipus. Tiresias plays second fiddle to Creon, but he is one of the important characters. He is a blind prophet and soothsayer, who interprets oracles of the Apollo. He accuses Oedipus of being the foreigner in the city, for causing the plague, and it proves true.
It seems that it isn't the gods themselves that Jocasta is skeptical of, but instead their supposed servants—men like Teiresias. Jocasta realizes before Oedipus that he is her son, and that they have committed incest. When she hangs herself with bed sheets, it is symbolic of her despair over her incestuous actions.
Interestingly, Jocasta plays both a spousal and maternal role to Oedipus. She loves Oedipus romantically, but like a parent, she wishes to protect Oedipus' innocence from the knowledge of their relationship:. With that last word I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore. Like Oedipus, Jocasta commits most of her "sins" in ignorance.
Yes, she did abandon Oedipus purposely when he was a baby, but even Oedipus says he wishes he had died on that mountainside. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Blindness Finding Out the Truth Action vs. All Symbols Triple crossroad Swollen ankles. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play.
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Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents! Struggling with distance learning? Antigone appears briefly at the end of Oedipus the King, when she says goodbye to her father as Creon prepares to banish Oedipus. She appears at greater length in Oedipus at Colonus, leading and caring for her old, blind father in his exile.
But Antigone comes into her own in Antigone. Whereas other characters—Oedipus, Creon, Polynices—are reluctant to acknowledge the consequences of their actions, Antigone is unabashed in her conviction that she has done right. Read an in-depth analysis of Antigone. Early in Oedipus the King, Creon claims to have no desire for kingship. Yet, when he has the opportunity to grasp power at the end of that play, Creon seems quite eager.
But Creon never has our sympathy in the way Oedipus does, because he is bossy and bureaucratic, intent on asserting his own authority. Read an in-depth analysis of Creon. Son of Oedipus, and thus also his brother.
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