When Jocasta was married to Laius and pregnant with Oedipus, she received a prophecy from the oracle in Delphi. The oracle stated that, “…Laius’ doom would be death at the hands of his own son.” (Sophocles 228). The quote explains that their unborn child will grow up to murder her husband, the child’s father. By telling Jocasta this she becomes frightened for the safety of her husband, and they decide that the only way to solve the problem is to kill the baby when it is born. When Oedipus is born, he is taken out of the country, to a deserted mountain side.
The main conflict of the play starts with the plague that Oedipus has to void in order to save the people of Thebes. Everything was good after he solved Sphinx’s riddle and became a king. To find the answer to a terrible plague that started to destroy the city, he sends a messenger to oracle. The answer received was to find and punish the killer of Laius, a former king of Thebes. He was told that the only man who escaped from the group of robbers, who attacked the king, is in the city.
When Oedipus asks why this case was not investigated the people respond that they were too busy trying to solve the sphinx’s riddle. Oedipus vows that no matter what the cost is, he will get to the bottom of it, both because it harmed Thebes and Laius was noble and loyal. Oedipus calls upon Teiresias, the blind prophet, and forces him to reveal what he knows of the murder. Teiresias reluctantly tells Oedipus that he killed his father and sleeps with his mother. Oedipus accuses him of lying on Creons behalf so Creon could kill Oedipus and take the throne.
Oedipus’ parents, Jocasta and Laius, sent Oedipus to die because of his fate. Oedipus survived and later save the city of Thebes from the sphinx. Oedipus is later found married to the queen of Thebes and is now trying to find out who killed the previous king, Laius. Regarding ignorance, Sophocles seems to say that ignorance can be anyones down fall. The first example is that Oedipus’ anger helps show how ignorant Oedipus is and how he even makes false accusations towards others.
Ah never, never! Nor this town with its high walls, Nor the holy images of the gods” (Sophocles 71). It seems that Oedipus meant to make an example of himself by gouging his own eyes out. He is, in a way, martyring himself via this extreme and painful punishment. The self-mutilation and subsequent blindness are supposed to be a punishment for killing his father, marrying his mother, and thus bringing a curse upon Thebes.
In this play, the Queen of the Goths, Tamora seeks revenge against Andronicus family when they show no mercy and murder her sons. In the same way, Titus Andronicus who is a famous general in Rome seeks revenge against Tamora and the emperor of Rome, Saturninus for murdering his sons. In addition to this, Tamora’s sons, Demetrius and Chiron shows no mercy to Titus’s daughter, Lavinia which opens themselve upto revenge. Therefore, in Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare demonstrates that when justice and mercy fail, revenge flourishes. In his play, Shakespeare shows that when the well-known general of Rome, Titus, does not show mercy to Tamora’s eldest son, Alarbus, one of his Goth war prisoner, Tamora then seeks revenge.
Once he finds out this is true he blinds himself and banned his self from civilization forever. He is the most tragic hero because fate was a main part of the tragedy. Oedipus rose to be king then fell to become a blind person who committed incest. Hamlet main goal was to avenge his father. Hamlet’s father’s ghost appears to Hamlet telling him what happened and to avenge him.
From the beginning, Oedipus Rex was a baby, Lauis and Jocasta found out from the oracle, that Oedipus Rex was going to kill his father and marry his mother. Lauis ordered that his baby son should be exposed in the woods with a pin through his feet to keep from crawling away but that didn’t change anything. Everything that was going to happen to Oedipus Rex was set and carved in stone. Oedipus Rex’s parents tried to change it but it never worked. Oedipus Rex heard from the oracle, when he was an adult that he was going to kill his father and sleep with his mother.
Their own son (who has not been born yet) will grow up, and he will kill his father (King Laois) and marry his mother (Queen Jocaste). In an attempt to not let this prophecy come true the king and queen ordered a peasant to leave Oedipus on the side of a mountain, and this is when the prophecy beings to take its path. The peasant does not leave it on the mountain side, for he would feel guilty to kill an infant. He handed it off to another peasant to bring to his town. One simple trip to an oracle sets the outline of a great ancient Greek tragedy.
They later heard of an oracle that later in their lives Oedipus would kill Laius and marry Jocasta. Shortly after they heard this, they abandoned him on a mountainside with a shepherd. Laius and Jocasta wanted the servant to kill Oedipus. The poor shepherd didn’t have the guts to kill a little baby. The shepherd gave Oedipus to an old man; the old man knew the king and queen of Corinth.