Oedipus is guilty because, despite knowing the prophecy that he will commit parricide and incest, he yet kills an elderly gentleman and sleeps with an elderly women. The choice was his, and this accounts for his guilt.
This is implausible because, at the time he killed the old man (his father) he had no idea of the prophecy that foreseen this happening. Even if he would have known about the Gods saying that he would do these things, it wouldn't have made much of a difference. For Oedipus thought his parents were different than who they really were. He had no idea that his real parents knew of the phrophecy and had him put in the mountains with pins in his ankles to die. He had no idea that a sheperd saved him and gave him to the King of Corinth. So he had no idea that the old man he met where the tree roads meet, was his real father, and he had no way of knowing that Jocasta was his real mother. So even if he knew that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, he......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 917
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |