Oedipus Rex

The setting of 'Oedipus Rex' is significant as the hometown and the crime scene of Theban King Oedipus. It also is significant as the location in which fateinexorably is carried out. And it therefore is significant too as a literary example of dramatic irony within a tragedy.

Oedipus doesn't know that Thebes is his birthplace. He is removed from his home when he's only three days old. The reason is a prophecy that his father, Theban King Laius, will be killed by his own son. His biological parents therefore intend for him to die instead. But through the help of two shepherds, Oedipus ultimately ends up in Corinth as the adoptive/foster son of King Polybus and Queen Merope.

As an adult, Oedipus hears a rumor that he isn't the biological son of his parents. He visits the Delphic Oracle for a second opinion. Instead, he receives the shocking news that he's fated to kill his own father and marry his own mother.

So Oedipus decides to flee from the Oracle and from Corinth. But the road meets two others, one of which leads ultimately to Thebes. At that crossroads, he is pulled into a street brawl by a churlish, surly stranger. Oedipus unknowingly kills in self defense his own father. Still ignorant of his true identity, he goes on to Thebes, which he saves from a murderous, tax crazy Sphinx. In gratitude, Thebans give him a job and a family by way of the vacant throne and the grieving widow that Laius leaves behind. The grieving widow is Theban Queen Jocasta, who is Oedipus' real mother.

Oedipus and Oedipus' parents think that a fate can be avoided. But their actions bring them to the very scene of their fates. Thebes indeed is the scene of all of the fated and committed crimes: the attempted murder of a child, the subsequent murder nearby of a king and a father, and the marriage of a mother to her own son. And so the play becomes the perfect, chilling example of the literary theme of fate, the literary technique of dramatic irony, and the literary form of the tragedy.

Resolution refers to the working out of all of the dramatic complications in the play. It reduces a complex situation to a simple one. It occurs after the climax, or turning point, which is where Haemon stands up for first cousin and fiancee Antigone against his father, Theban King Creon.

So the resolution begins with Haemon's walking out on his father. It ends before the conclusion, which is where Creon grieves over his wife Theban Queen Eurydice's suicide and ends up being exiled. So the resolution ends with the suicides of Antigone, Haemon, and Eurydice.

The line numbering varies by the particular version of the play 'Oedipus Rex'. According to some versions, the lines 1109-1110 occur around the time that Theban Queen Jocasta receives the news of the death of Corinthian King Polybus. This news reassures her, because her second husband, Theban King Oedipus, previously tells her of the Delphic Oracle's description of him as his father's killer. But Polybus dies a natural death in Corinth while Oedipus rules in Thebes. So Oedipus can't be a father and king killer.

According to other versions, the lines occur later on in the play. The later news upsets Jocasta. The chilling news later on is the survival of an infant whose ankles are pierced. That child is given to a Corinthian shepherd by the very trusted shepherd and servant to whom Jocasta entrusts heer three day old infant. The baby Oedipus is the predicted killer of his father and sovereign, Laius. Jocasta can't bring herself to kill Oedipus to keep him from killing her husband. All this time she thinks that her husband's life is safe, because of the shepherd carrying out her royal orders to kill the infant for her. Jocasta therefore realizes that Oedipus, her beloved second husband and the father of her four children, is none other than her own son.

Royal sisters Antigone and Ismene endure the humiliating and shameful fates of their parents. Indeed, their father Theban King Oedipus is husband and son to his wife and mother, Theban Queen Jocasta. Their parents commit incest, their father murders his father and his king, their mother kills herself, and their father blinds himself before his miserable exile.

And then the suffering begins anew with Antigone's and Ismene's twin brothers. Eteocles and Polyneices fight over who has the greater and the sole right to rule over Thebes. The fight turns violent, ugly, brutal, and bloody. The brothers end up killing each other on the battlefield.

If that isn't enough, then Eteocles is allowed to be buried in accordance with god given and guaranteed rights of Thebans to proper funerary rites and rituals. But Polyneices is denied that right. And so the suffering begins anew with the burial of Eteocles and the exposure of Polyneices' corpse to the weather, the dogs, and the birds.

Teiresias the blind prophet identifies Theban King Oedipus as the mystery killer of Theban King Laius. He also casts doubt on the acceptability, holiness and legality of the King's unknowingly incestuous marriageto Laius' grieving widow, Theban Queen Jocasta. He sums up his predictions of a dire future by calling the day of their bitter exchange as one of Oedipus' birth and death.

This odd description of the day is due to Oedipus' ignorance of the true nature of his identity and of that of his parents. Oedipus mistakenly believes himself to be the biological son of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth. In fact, he's their adoptive/foster son. His true parents are the man whom he kills and the victim's wife whom he marries.

The heinous crime of father and king killing and the sex offense of mother-son incest are revealed to all of Thebes. One direct consequence is Jocasta's suicide. Another is Oedipus' own blinding and subsequent beggarly, humiliating, miserable exile. In one day, he loses his wife, the respect of an entire citizenry, the meaning of his life, his job, and his identity. So it's all in a day's work that Oedipus is born to his true identity and dies with the public revealing of the shameful crimes by which such an identity is accompanied.

There are three main characters who are women in the play 'Antigone'. The three represent different models of female behavior. One model is represented by the main character of the same name. She's presented as a rebel among women in her passionate outbursts and her unconventional behavior. For example, Antigone believes that convictions can be had, feelings can be experienced, and work can be done by women as well as by men. She doesn't believe that she needs a man to tell her what to say, feel, or do. She knows on her own what's right and wrong, what's comfortable and uncomfortable, and what to do about them.

Another model of female behavior is represented by Theban Queen Eurydice, who is Creon's wife, Haemon's mother, and Antigone's future mother-in-law. Eurydice only appears towards the end of the play. Her main contribution is her suicide. She seems to have lived in her husband's shadow, and been content to follow his orders. But with the loss of both her sons, she's in a difficult position. Does she continue to respect Creon and live life as the obedient, subservient female? Or does she dare to question an authority that costs her the lives of both her children? She's anguished enough to not want to continue living on Creon's terms. But at the same time, she feels so much anguish that she can't make the effort to rebel. Besides, she knows the price that Antigone pays for rebellion.

Still another model is represented by Antigone's sister, Ismene. Ismene is actually a transition between Antigone's rebellious extreme and Eurydice's traditional extreme. She initially seems to be what may be called today a pre-suffragist supporter of the status quo. She believes in being respectful to earthly authorities and obedient to men. She operates from a gender basis, in that certain activities and responsibilities are for men alone and others for women alone. But she subsequently shows promise of change in her brave, sensible attempts to defend Antigone against Creon's wrath.