Oedipus The King Gender Roles Essay

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Oedipus Rex and Gender Switching
Mark Edward M. Gonzales

SOPHOCLES’ CLASSIC TRAGEDY Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King), the first of his so-called Theban plays, presents to us the timelessly haunting story of Oedipus as he unknowingly fulfills the prophecy that he would murder his own father and marry his own mother. In this analysis, we reimagine the plot given a gender switch—Oedipus conceived as a female, and Jocasta conceived as Laius (and the other way around).

Feminist Criticism of Oedipus Rex

Before proceeding to the gender switch per se, it is important to understand (1) the role of women in ancient Greek society and (2) its repercussion to the two eminent female characters in the play: Jocasta and the Sphinx.

The role of women in ancient …show more content…

This irony can be interpreted in the context of the subconscious. Consciously, she tries to convince herself that the oracle is false or, “more correctly,” the one who delivered the oracle is mistaken. Subconsciously, however, she is aware of the impending doom and desperately tries to subvert the forces of fate. In the end, such hubris—the belief that a female could make choices, the delusional belief that a mere female, even if she is the queen dowager (or a mere queen dowager), could escape the decrees of destiny—only accentuates her powerlessness. On the other hand, the Sphinx devours men who cannot answer the riddle and plagues the land of Thebes. Hence, her hubris is the false sense of superiority she holds—the false belief that the female sex could dominate the male …show more content…

The relationship between Oedipus and Jocasta is not clear-cut; it is a rather extremely complex one. First of all, Jocasta is offered as a prize for the person who can answer the riddle and eliminate the Sphinx. Moreover, the queen dowager seems to know that Oedipus is her son (interestingly, Jocasta’s sparse lines in the play accentuate the concurrent thickening of the plot and the “transition” of her knowledge of Oedipus’ true identity from subconscious to conscious). Nevertheless, she demonstrates both romantic (she and Oedipus have two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene) and maternal love (she desperately tries to shield Oedipus from the pain and damnation that will result from the revelation of the

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