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Example research essay topic: Laius And Jocasta Father And Marry - 1,537 words

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Laius and Jocasta were King and Queen of the Great City of Thebes. After they bore a child they took him to an oracle to see what was to become of him. But the oracle said, You will slay your father and marry your mother. Fearing the oracle, Laius and Jocasta delivered Oedipus, their infant son, to a servant, with orders that he be killed.

The servant took the baby into the wilderness, but could not bring himself to carry out the command. Instead, he turned the child over to a Corinthian herdsman, who in turn passed the little boy on to Polybus, King of Corinth, who adopted him as his own son. Oedipus was thus raised to believe that he was the natural son of Polybus. Pride being his downfall and fate nipping at his heel Oedipus was oblivious to the irony that surrounded himself in Sophocles play Oedipus Rex. Oedipus's life began to unravel the day he overheard an oracle repeat to him the unthinkable prophecy that he would someday kill his father and marry his mother.

Supposing that Polybus was his real father, Oedipus determined to leave Corinth so as not to remain anywhere near Polybus, left Corinth and traveled to Thebes. In his travels, Oedipus came to a place where three roads meet. There he became caught up in a violent argument with a band of travelers. He managed to kill all but one of his attackers, but remained oblivious to the tragic irony of this triumph. Among the men he had slain was Laius, his true father. Later, the prophecies completed their awful and ironic cycle of fulfillment when Oedipus undertook a mission to save Thebes, [still acknowledged as his native city] from some female monster called the Sphinx.

Of all the unlucky heroes to make the attempt, Oedipus alone was able to answer the riddle that was put in front of many mockingly along the Theban roadside by the winged lion-woman. "What goes first on four legs, then on two, and then on three?" The Sphinx had ravenously devoured all those brave and foolhardy souls who gave her wrong answers, but Oedipus, with the simple answer, "Man, " gained the power to finally destroy her. The grateful people of the city quickly claimed him as King, and in time, he met, fell in love with, and married his own mother, Jocasta. The irony here is that Oedipus has run away from the father he knows and has run into his true father and has killed him as the oracle said he would do. Now Oedipus has gained access to the city by solving a riddle, which in turn has put him in his mothers arms. Of course Jocasta had no idea that her new young husband was the son she had sent off to be killed as an infant, nor did Oedipus realize that the dreaded prophecy had now at last been fulfilled. In Thebes, a dreadful plague had struck.

The citizens assembled to beg King Oedipus to stop the disease, and Oedipus reassured them that Creon, Jocasta's brother, had gone to Delphi to ask the great Apollo how the plague might be ended. Little does Oedipus know he will be in an investigation, looking for himself and the truth, Although the truth he seeks know will be the truth he cannot see later. When Creon finally returned, he brought startling news that Apollo had declared that the plague had come upon the city because the very man who had murdered King Laius years before was now living in Thebes. Apollo further swore that the plague would endure until the murderer was exposed and exiled from the city.

Oedipus, totally unaware that he himself was the one who had struck down Laius, vowed to discover the identity of the murderer at all costs. Oedipus's first step was to call in Teiresias, a blind soothsayer of renowned wisdom. When the King questioned Teiresias as to the identity of Laius' murderer, the prophet first claimed that he did know the man's name, but then hesitated, he did not want to hurt himself or Oedipus. Still Oedipus pressed on, and Teiresias finally relented. "You are the slayer whom you seek, " he sadly told Oedipus. Oedipus, furious at the suggestion of his guilt, yelled and screamed at the prophet, who kept on by insisting that Oedipus was yet blind to the truth and would soon learn of his guilt. Oedipus angrily dismissed the sightless old man, accusing him of conspiring with Jocasta's brother, Creon, to overthrow him, and take away his throne.

Afterwards, Jocasta unfolded to Oedipus the complete circumstances about the earlier prophecy, but maintained that it could not have come to pass. Laius had not been killed by his son, but by a band of robbers "at a place where three roads meet. " When Oedipus heard this he was stunned, quietly he told Jocasta how he himself had once killed a man at such a place. For the first time, both mother and son began to suspect that the words of Teiresias might be true. Oedipus talked and acted like Jocasta's son and was comforted by her as if she was his mother as they talked and tried to make sense of the investigation.

Oedipus slowly put the pieces of his life together as each chapter unfolded. But their suspicions were soon forgotten. However, when a messenger arrived from Corinth with the news that Polybus had died. Oedipus and Jocasta were in a strange state of joy. This meant that the whole prophecy was false, since Oedipus had not killed his own father, there was no reason to believe the oracle's belief that he had also slain Jocasta's first husband.

When the king and queen explained their expressions of joy and relief to the messenger, this man told them news that they didnt want to hear. "Oh, you did not know?" he told them. "Polybus was not your natural father, you were adopted. It was said that a Theban herdsman found you as a baby on a hillside. He gave you to me, and I presented you to the childless King Polybus, who adopted you. " Even though Jocasta wanted Oedipus to stop he would not. Oedipus had to much pride to stop the investigation, so he persons it to the end and to his end. Oedipus was horrified by this account, and immediately sent for the herdsman, who told him the full story of the servant and the child he had dealt with years before. The now aged servant was then called forth.

Naturally, he was reluctant to confess the truth, but urged on by Oedipus, he blurted out the tale of how Jocasta and Laius had ordered him to take their infant son into the country and slay him, and how he had not found the heart to do the deed. At that moment, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Oedipus was the infant of whom they spoke. Jocasta, his wife, was also his mother, who had long ago turned him over to be killed, and the man he had slain at the crossroads was none other than his true father.

At the awful realization that she had actually been an accomplice in the fulfillment of the prophecy she had sought to get rid of, Jocasta rushed to her room. By the time Oedipus broke down the heavy doors, it was too late. He saw his wife and mother "hung by her neck, from twisted cords, swinging to and fro. " In agony, Oedipus cut down her body, tore the broaches from her clothes, and with them, put out his eyes, screaming. Now when he finally has seen the truth he is blind physically. The tragedy of Oedipus Rex is not so much that Oedipus commits two horrible crimes, after all, he was fated to do so, and committed them unknowingly. [It is rather, that he, like his doomed parents before him, who ran blindly into the destiny he was trying to defy. ] Pride was his downfall as it is in most Greek stories. Oedipus Rex is well known for dramatic irony.

Everybody in the audience knows from the start that Oedipus himself is the guilty person he seeks out for punishment. The viewers' enjoyment comes as they see and hear the facts build up, bit by bit, until it suddenly dawns on Oedipus that he is his father's murderer. The blind man Teiresias who shows Oedipus to see the light highlights the irony. Oedipus, though his physical eyes can see, is blind to the truth. When he finally does come to see the truth, ironically, he blinds himself. Perhaps the irony of the oracle believed to be wrong, when in truth it is right, will haunt Oedipus the most.

At first he was power stricken and drunk from the power that he gained from the riddle he completed. As his investigation dragged on he became weak and helpless from that same power he gained as he still pressed on for an answer. Although the true answer to the riddle does not lie in some great phenomenon, the greatest mystery begins and ends with man.


Free research essays on topics related to: king and queen, father and marry, laius and jocasta, oedipus rex, blind to the truth

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