The Oedipus Trilogy Group

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tnw
tnw
Student
College - Freshman

How does Oedipus accept responsibility for his actions?

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Posted by tnw on Monday February 11, 2008 at 1:50 PM and tagged with characters, oedipus, plot, responsibility, the oedipus trilogy, themes.

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  1. linda-allen Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Can there be a more tragic situation than what this play presents? When he learns that despite the precautions his birth parents took, fate intervened so that he murdered his father and married his own mother, Oedipus is horrified. He doesn't try to deny the truth or shirk his responsibility. He says:

    I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed,
    A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!

    Equally horrified at what has happened, Jocasta, the wife/mother of Oedipus, commits suicide. Mourning over her body, Oedipus takes pins out of her hair and plunges them into his own eyes, blinding himself.

    "No more shall ye behold such sights of woe,
    Deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought;
    Henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see
    Those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those
    Whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know."

    He asks Creon to let him go into exile and begs him to take care of his children.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/oedipus-text/oedipus-king
    http://www.enotes.com/oedipus/oedipus-king-lines-1-166

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    Posted by linda-allen on Monday February 11, 2008 at 2:28 PM