At last, the entire mystery revealed itself to him. He understood who his true parents were – Jocasta and Laius. One of those men he had killed while crossing over the mountain had been his father!
Oedipus questions the old shepherd who found him. With lots of threatening, he gets some information. Finally, Oedipus pieces things together and realizes that Jocasta is his mother. As predicted by the prophecy, he has slept with his mother and killed his father.
Jocasta realizes the truth—that Oedipus is her son as well as her husband—and tells Oedipus to stop the interrogations. He doesn't listen, and an eyewitness, the Herdsman who rescued him when he was an infant, confirms that he was Laius and Jocasta's child, and that Oedipus killed Laius.
Only when Oedipus threatens violence does the shepherd reveal that long ago he disobeyed his orders and saved the baby out of pity. And, finally, he admits that the baby was the son of Laius and Jocasta. With this news, Oedipus realizes that he has murdered his father and married his mother.
Oedipus asks the elders if anyone knew the shepherd from the household of Laius. They say it is the very servant that has been sent for. Meanwhile Jocasta has put all the bits of evidence into place, and is terrified by the result — that Oedipus is her own son.
Oedipus told the messenger that he could not go back while his mother was alive. Surprise overwhelmed Oedipus, for the messenger told him that she was not his mother. He explained that he was given the baby many years ago by a Theban shepherd. Jocasta then realized that Oedipus was her son.
Answer and Explanation:
In Oedipus the King, Jocasta kills herself because she is ashamed for having become intimate with her son, Oedipus. Earlier in the play, she becomes aware of a prophecy that predicts she will marry her own child.
The messenger enters again to tell the Chorus what has happened in the palace. Jocasta is dead, by suicide. She locked herself in her bedroom, crying for Laius and weeping for her monstrous fate. Oedipus came to the door in a fury, asking for a sword and cursing Jocasta.
This seemingly disproves the prophecy that said Laius would die by his son's hand. As far as Jocasta knows, she abandoned her baby boy to exposure, starvation, and wild beasts for nothing.
Answer: Oedipus blinds himself because he cannot bear to look at the world anymore after realizing the truth about his past. He learns that he has unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling a prophecy that he had been trying to avoid his whole life.
It is when a mother has an abnormally close or incestuous attachment to her son. It is named after Jocasta the mother and wife of Oedipus in Greek mythology.
An oracle had predicted that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother, and as an infant he was abandoned by his birth parents, Laius and Jocasta, the rulers of Thebes, because of this curse. He was taken by a shepherd, and raised by the previously childless king and queen of Corinth, Polybus and Merope.
Jocasta loved her son to the core and did everything to protect him including taking his side against Creon.
Jocasta, finally realizing Oedipus' true identity, entreats him to abandon his search for Laius' murderer. Oedipus misunderstands the motivation of her pleas, thinking that she was ashamed of him because he might have been the son of a slave. She then goes into the palace where she hangs herself.
Cursing his fate that had doomed him to do what he had meant not to do, he blinded himself, as he could not bear to see the children he had fathered with Jocasta, his wife and mother. Jocasta for her part hanged herself. Oedipus, in disgrace, left his country, and, as a blind beggar, wandered in the countryside.
Jocasta now realizes that Oedipus is the baby she and Laius abandoned, and that the prophecy has come true. She begs Oedipus to stop his inquiry, but he refuses, and she runs into the palace screaming.
You're doomed—may you never fathom who you are! This is Jocasta's penultimate line in Oedipus the King, spoken just before she exits the stage. Jocasta's words reveal that she has put the pieces together and understands what actually happened in the past.
Who is Responsible for Oedipus' Downfall? Oedipus is ultimately responsible for his own downfall. He was warned by the Oracle of Delphi that he would kill his father and marry his mother, but instead of avoiding the prophecy, he took matters into his own hands and tried to outrun his fate.
While it may be inferred that Hector is slightly older or of the same age as his wife, Jocasta is at least twelve years older than her husband-son Oedipus. Because she is the queen of Thebes whose husband is a former prince, Jocasta holds a higher place in society and in marriage than Andromache.
Answer and Explanation: After Jocasta learns that she married her son and had four children with him, she commits suicide by hanging herself. She cannot bear the shame of have committed incest with her son and decides that suicide is preferable to living with the truth.
Hegel holds that although Oedipus was causally responsible for the death of the old man at the crossroads, he cannot be held morally accountable for parricide; he is innocent of this, as well as of related crimes.
If he had just given up, no one would have known the truth about him and his family. He's blind, but is the wisest and can "see" what Oedipus could not. When does Jocasta realize the truth and how does she react? She realizes the truth when the messenger comes and she tells Oedipus to give up looking for the answers.
Let's learn about the disease that robbed Jocasta Cameron of her eyesight: Glaucoma. Yep, that's the one. Glaucoma (glaw-koh-muh), is a word derived from the Greek glaukommatos meaning “gray-eyed.”
At the end of the play, after the truth finally comes to light, Jocasta hangs herself while Oedipus, horrified at his patricide and incest, proceeds to gouge out his own eyes in despair.
Claire surmises that glaucoma, a degenerative condition that damages the optic nerve, is the likeliest culprit.