Jake Mazie
Ms. Brita
English one
January 8th 2013
Out of all the great downfalls of kings throughout history, the fall of Oedipus may have been the most humiliating and dark. Many people caused this horrible outcome, but one person causes the most damage. In Oedipus the King Oedipus suffered a horrid fate. Although others played a part, Jocasta was most a fault because she helped Laios avoid his fate, she was oblivious to the evidence of the prophecy, and she kept the truth to her self.
To begin, the fact that Jocasta helped Laios avoid his fate in the first place was a critical move that affected Oedipus. She had left her own child alone on a hill to perish painfully and slowly. "We gave orders to leave our son on a mountain", said Jocasta (Sophocles 940). Jocasta and Laios did not raise Oedipus; therefore he didn't know they were his mom and dad.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's teeth, by Maxfield Parr...
Oedipus complex: Oedipus explains the riddle of th...
Deutsch: Theaterfotografie van Albert Greiner sr. ...Because he couldn't realize who they were, Oedipus slept with his mother and murdered his own father. Jocasta knew the gods despised people who tried to avoid prophecies, but yet fear got the best of her. In the end, Jocasta trying to avoid her and Laios fate actually made it come true.
Jocasta was extremely oblivious and naïve throughout the play. In Oedipus the King, Jocasta failed to recognize any of the signs that Laios's prophesy had actually came true. When Tiresias told Oedipus that he killed his father, Jocasta should have started to ponder. When Oedipus made the connection with his father and the travelers he killed at the crossroads, Jocasta should have worried. Jocasta had the most info out of anyone in the kingdom and yet she failed to have even a clue. Even Oedipus who wasn't there at the time...