It has been produced numerous times since Sophocles debut, and is viewed highly above many other playwrights’ works in Western Literature (Snodgrass, 125). Sophocles wittingly incorporates a third actor to add great flexibility to the play, and is also credited with painting of the scenery, enlargement of the chorus, and the separation of the tetralogies (Snodgrass, 125). Oedipus the King

amazingly portrays the characteristic of fate which is a key factor in this play. Also, the play features a great role in dramatic irony. Oedipus seems very wise and knowledgeable to save a whole kingdom from the vicious sphinx, yet he is so foolish and ignorant about his own life.

The play begins in ancient Thebes, where the subjects of the city are suffering from plague and sickness.Oedipus, the ruler of Thebes, is uncertain of the cause of the plague, and sends his brother-in-law Creon, to inquire at the oracle of Delphi to the reason of the sickness. Creon returns with news from the oracle that murderer of the former King Laius, who is currently residing in Thebes, must be found and expelled from the city, in order for the plague to pass. Ignorantly, Oedipus makes a vow that the murderer will be punished, as well as banished from Thebes. As the play progresses, a blind prophet named Teiresias sent by Creon, comes before King Oedipus, and tells him that he, the King himself, is the murderer. He also tells Oedipus that he is the son and husband of his wife. Oedipus becomes enraged at this, and curses the old man, as well as accuses Creon of conspiring against him. Oedipus begins explaining a prophecy that he had heard in his youth with Jocasta his wife; the prophecy that he would marry his mother, and slay his father. Jocasta tells Oedipus that Laius also had a prophesy, in which his son would kill him. The two begin to reason that prophecies cannot be true, because Laius’s son was thrown out of Thebes, to die as a baby, and that King Laius and all except one of his party members was murdered by thieves at a crossroads. Oedipus remembers a confrontation at a crossroads, and has Jocasta to bring the survivor from Laius’s party. The shepherd arrives and informs Oedipus that his father Polybus, king of Corinth, has died recently and that Oedipus is heir to the throne. Elated to hear that his father has died of old age, rather than by his own hand, Oedipus celebrates with Jocasta, although he still worries about having children in his mother’s womb. The shepherd assures Oedipus that Polybus and Merope were not his biological parents, and explains that Oedipus was given to him by another herder as an infant with his ankles bound together (the name Oedipus is correspondent to “swollen feet”). Oedipus than inquires further about the second shepherd, when Jocasta urges Oedipus not to ask further questions, and than runs into the palace to hang herself. The second shepherd arrives and tells Oedipus that the baby was of King Laius’s blood. Realizing that the prophecies are all true, Oedipus runs into the palace, stabs his eyes out with Jocasta’s brooches, and curses himself. He than asks Creon to exile him immediately, because of his great sins of incest and betrayal.