Jocasta's Responsibility In Oedipus The King

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Recommended: Themes and structure of king oedipus

Diana Carolina Aguilera
09 September 2014
4G Civilization 3
Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King
Oedipus was made king of Thebes, after Laius died, and in addition to becoming king Oedipus, was honored by the hand of Queen Jocasta. Oedipus was in a joyous state, he was asked to help the citizens once more, but Creon cam and informed Oedipus of some horribly information. In the following essay you will be informed about the characters and the parts they take in the events that occurr in Oedipus the king.

Oedipus had many tragedies occurring in his life and secrets were being hidden from him. when he was informed of these secrets, he began to discover many things in his life that he wasn’t informed of . I would assign blame for …show more content…

After Jocasta, I the messenger would be responsible , then after the messenger would have came Creon, Tiresias, then finally Oedipus. I feel that Jocasta was the most responsible for Oedipus’ tragedy, she never informed Oedipus that he had children. Jocasta was citing the old prophecy “that her son should kill his father and have children with his mother” (Alice B. Fort and Herbert S. Kates, p. 17). Jocasta took it in her hands to make sure that Oedipus would not be killed by his only son. She abandoned her son on a mountain. The same way Oedipus’ family abandoned him. in my opinion that was the wrong thing to do, although Oedipus’ son was going to kill him, Jocasta should have still notified Oedipus of his child's existence. If Oedipus knew that he had a son he probably would have done the same thing, but at least he knew that it was his son and that he would kill him, or perhaps wait until that moment came …show more content…

he is responsible because Oedipus was already in a bad state and the messenger told him “that Polybus and Merope weren’t his real parents” (F. Storr, Oedipus the King). I understand that the messenger thought that it would relieve some stress, if he told Oedipus, but he didn’t. In my opinion the messenger had no right to say “and hey by the way your adopted Oedipus, ok have a good day now”. Oedipus’ parents did the same thing that Jocasta did, and the old shepherd confirmed it. In result of the old shepherd’s conformation “Jocasta hung herself” (Alice B. Fort and Herbert S. Kates, p.

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