Oedipus Rex Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Oedipus Rex - Assignment Example At the opening of the play, while the proximate event in the prophecy that Oedipus will murder his father being made known to Laius proceeds to the king’s action of casting out his son, the occurrence of the plague in Thebes makes the long-term event. Because of the plague itself, Oedipus necessitates to carry out a thorough investigation in determining the principal cause of the plague. The plague which the Thebes is stricken by is due to the unresolved case of the murdered Laius, king of Thebes and Creon figures out through the oracle that the plague’s precipitating dramatic event will dissolve the moment that the murderer is exiled from Thebes. Jocasta’s brother Creon expresses abnegation of kingship after the death of Laius for the sole reason that he finds no interest in ruling and the responsibility of freeing the city from the Sphinx. He feels less able to drive the plague away from Thebes so he proposes to offer the crown as well as his sister to anyone who bears the potential of answering the Sphinx’s riddle for he appears short of competence in this area. In the end, however, Creon becomes king on the ground that the sons of Oedipus Eteocles and Polynices contending for the throne die of slaying each