King Oedipus

At the start of the play King Oedipus steps out his royal palace into a group of priests. The priests ask him why is the town suffering from poverty. People are dying the enconomy gets worse and worse. One of the eldest of the group asks the king to help him and the rest of the community, to discover what is the problem. He tells him that he suffers more than them. He tells him that he has sent his brother-in-law Creon to Apollo to see what is the problem and that he should return any day now. While they are speaking Creon comes to the group. King Oedipus wishes to know what the problem is. But Creon, knowing the bad news, ask if he wants to hear the news in private. King Oedipus refuses knowing that the community's problem is his problem. And everyone should be able to hear the news. Whether it is good or bad. Creon tells him that the problem is that a killer who killed King Lauis is in Thebes. King Lauis was the king before Oedipus. And they must find the killer or killers to end the plague. Creon then goes on and tells the story of Lauis's death in how all one one of his travlers survied the horrific death of his leader. Oedipus is dumbfounded on why the people of Thebes never tried to solve on who killed their leader. Which Creon reminds him about the curse of the Sphinx. With what Oedipus has heard he has vowed to solve the mystery of the killing of the former leader, Lauis. The chorus enters, crying out to the gods to help save Thebes. King Oedipus then calls everyone to his palace and declares that the person who killed the former king will have no hurndeous pushinment other than leaving the country. When no one answers he gets angry and tells them that if the person is in his own family that he will have the same punishment acted upon them that he just told the whole community about. The chorus then tells Oedipus to ask Teiresia who is blind. Oedipus has already sent for him, but there have been rumors that he has been killed on his road trip. But he ends up showing up and talking to Oedipus. Theiresia refuses to say anything and says he shouldn't have come in the first place. Oedipus is confused at first and shouts and insult the man. After many insults and hurtful words, Theiresias gets angry and starts to give out hints. Oedipus gets so upset that he accuses Theiresias of the muder of Lauis. Theiresais gets upset and tells Oedipus that he doesn't even know who his real parents are. Oedipus curisousity gets the best of him and starts to ask more questions about his parents. Teiresias only answered in riddles and says the killer of Laius is the son of his wife and the brother of his children. The chorus decides that they will not believe anything or anyone unless they are given proof. Creon enters with Oedipus. Oedipus accuses Creon of trying to overthrow him because he is the one that told him to bring Teiresias. Creon tries to calm Oedipus down, but Oedipus refuses and wants Creon to be killed. Jocasta comes in and convinces Oedipus not to kill anyone. Oedipus tells his wife about his day with Teiresias. Jocasta then tells him that they are all wrong. She tells him the story of how Lauis was told that he was to be murdered by his own son. With that, Jocasta and Lauis make sure that their son dies. They pinned his feet together and is shipped over to the mountain side to die. Or so they thought. Oedipus vaguely remembers this story and ask Jocasta to tell him more about the king's death. She speaks about how Lauis was at a three way road. He is suprised and tells her that he also killed a man at a three way road and that he may be the one that killed Lauis. He also tells her that when he was a kid at some banquet he overheard some drunken men that he wasn't the real son of his parents. Him being frightned he went to Delphi to find out what the truth was. When he found out that he was to kill his father and marry his mother he got scared and ran away so he could never harm anyone. Right before he was to enter the town, Thebes, he was confronted by some men that would not stop insulting him. He killed them out of self-defense. The same exact road where Lauis was killed. He gets scared and searches for the man that survied the attack. A messenger comes along and tells him that his father Polybus is dead and Oedipus is to come rule there. With that news they come to believe that the phophercy is wrong. He is still worried about sleeping with his mom, but the messenger tells him that he shouldn't worry because they were not his real parents. He then tells the story of how is parents found him on the side of the mountain with his feet pinned together. King Lauis and his wife gave their son away because of the awful fate that was to happen with their son. Oedipus sends to find the other person who worked for Lauis. Jocasta tells him to stop finding out who is real parents are. He tells her no and she freaks saying that this is the last of her he will see. He thinks it's just because she will get mad if he finds out that his real parents are poor. The shephard comes in and Oedipus begs him to speak. He refuses, but he finally agrees after O threatens to touture him. He gave the baby to another shephard to be raised as a prince. He realizes who he is and who is true parents are and screams. Then there is more bad news. They come to find out that Jocasta has hung herself because she realized who she really was and her son. O enters her room and seeing her being hung by a rope takes golden brouches from her clothing and repeatdly gouges his eyes out until he is blind. He cries out in agony that he is horrible and that is life is done for. He has asked to be taken away from Thebes at once. (like he told the people that would happen when he would find out who killed Lauis) Creon enters and agrees at once that he should be banned from the country only if the gods agree. He prays to the gods and they agree. Creon tells him that his son will act as men. O agrees, but asked to see his girls Antigone and Ismene. They enter the stage crying for their father. He tells him that no man will want to marry them after knowing what horrible father they had. He ask them to pray for a better life then he could ever give them. They hug once last time before the girls are taken away. At the end Creon bring O down from the throne and off to the country. The chorus enters saying that the greatest man has fallen and that all life horrible and the only way to have peace is to die.