An Analysis of Oedipus Rex, a Play by Sophocles

An Analysis of Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex is one of the most famous stories in ancient literature. Sophocles wrote the
story in 420 BCE. Sophocles wrote a story about a man whose life was fate was predetermined
from birth. He could not change the tragedy that awaited him, no matter his decision. Therefore,
we analyze the theme of the story of Oedipus’s fate, introspecting into what his mother tried to
do to change the fate of her child and also checking into the attempts by Oedipus to avoid or
change his fate.
The ancient people at the writer's time believed that the gods determine someone's fate.
"The one whose fate the gods revealed, what kind of man is he ."In this sense fate, humankind
lacks the potential to avoid fate. The fate of Oedipus revealed that he was to kill his father and
marry his mother, who together would conceive children. According to the article ‘the plague of
Thebes, a historical epidemic in Sophocles, ' Oedipus’ fate is completely tragic because of the
character’s tragedy and not because he caused the plague (Aydogmus, 2022). The father of
Oedipus was named Laius and was the King of Thebes. After Oedipus killed his father, he was
never punished. The gods plagued Thebes until the murder of Laius was revenged. As a result,
Oedipus began to figure out who he was and what action he had just taken.
The fate of Oedipus was foreseen by Apollo, who advised Laius and Jocasta not to have a
child because they would get a son who would kill his father and marry his mother, with whom
they would have children. The decision made by Oedipus’s parents was the source of all the
trouble. They did not heed the oracle and hence had to suffer the consequences of their choice.
Laius and Jocasta had an option to live and die childless and avoid the foreseen fate of Oedipus.
After the birth of Oedipus, his mother ordered a servant to take him to the wilderness and kill

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him to avoid his fate. Instead, the servant did not kill the child but gave him to a childless couple.
Jocasta would rather have her child killed than live to see the fate of her family come true.
However, it was clear that she could not evade the fate that would befall them, as revealed by the
Oracle.
Later in life, Oedipus heard of his fate while living with his adoptive parents. He had
thought that he had been living with his real parents, and therefore he attempted to run away in
order to avoid his fate. As Oedipus escaped, he murdered a man and his servants except one.
Oedipus later destroys the sphinx making him the king of the land. Due to cultural beliefs, the
king married the wife of the previous king (Brook, 2019). Due to this, the land is stricken with a
plague. The drought and plague that befell the people of Thebes almost brought them to total
extinction. The gods brought about the plague because the previous murder of the king was never
revenged. According to Apollo the oracle, the cure to the famine and plagues that had invaded
Thebes was to get rid of the people who killed king Laius and murder them or send them away
from the land as outcasts.
Oedipus seeks answers from all over the land and summons the blind prophet known as
Tiresias. Tiresias claimed to have answers to the oracle’s questions, but he refused to speak. He
tells Oedipus to stop the search, but instead, Oedipus accuses Tiresias of involvement in the
killing. It is discovered that the man Oedipus killed was Laius, the king and his real father.
Hence, he married his mother and sired children together. Tiresias felt provoked by the king’s
statement and hence revealed the truth. Oedipus could not believe him, but as Tiresias was
leaving, he said that the murderer of Laius would turn out to be the son of his wife, father, and
brother of his children (Easterling et al., 2006).

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In addition, on the realization of the reality of the prophecy, Jocasta takes away her life.
Oedipus feels distressed by his fate, and he blinds himself by gorging out his eyes not to see the
horrors he had brought about. The blind king Oedipus begs to be sent to exile immediately and
asks Creon to take care of his daughters Ismene and Antigone. However, Oedipus was unaware
that the man he had killed was his real father and the woman he married was his mother, hence
his innocence. Due to the bitterness in the revelation of the reality of the prophecy, it is
understandable what he did to blind himself. The story describes how a good man could have a
cursed fate, like in Oedipus’s case.
The play relates to a theory by Sigmund F


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