Oedipus Rex by Sophocles: Short Story Explained ACT-wise

ACT - I

The play ‘Oedipus Rex’ begins outside the King Oedipus' palace in a city-state ‘Thebes’ in Greece, where some beggars and a Priest have gathered and brought branches and wreaths of olive leaves for the king (It was a tradition at that time). King Oedipus appears on the stage and asks the people of his state ‘Thebes’ why do they so lament? The Priest explains the cause of their arrival;

 

The city, as you see yourself, is now
Too much tossed by waves, and can no longer
Lift its head above the surf and troughs of blood.

It wastes in the herds of cattle and in women's
Barren pangs.

 

In simple, the Priest reports that Thebes has been beset with horrible calamities. Fires and famines have destroyed their crops. Plague has caused widespread suffering and death among their families and animals. At the end, the priest admires the king for having solved the riddle of the Sphinx (an action for which the Thebans awarded Oedipus with the kingship of Thebes and Jocasta as wife). Hence, King Oedipus assures to look into the matter.

The just king ‘Oedipus’ expresses his profound sympathy and announces that he has sent Creon, the Queen's brother, to Delphi to receive the oracle of Apollo in order to gain some much-needed guidance.

Nevertheless, Creon arrives and reports the news in front of the gathered public. Creon exclaims that the gods have caused the plague as a reaction to the murder of their previous king ‘Laius’ and that they want the Thebans to:

 

drive out pollution sheltered in our land

.

Meaning thereby that, the annoyed gods demand to find the murderer out and to kill or exile him (Since king Laius had been killed on the roadside by a highwayman). Oedipus vows to root out this evil as soon as possible.

 

[In the next scene, the chorus of Theban elders calls upon the gods—Apollo, Athena, and Artemis to save them from the disaster.]

 

In his effort to finding and punishing king Laius's murderer, Oedipus declares that he has sent for Tiresias, the blind prophet. Tiresias arrives and seems reluctant to expose what he knows. But following the commandment of the king, he exclaims with trembling voice:

 

You are the curse, the corruption of the land!
I say you are the murderer you hunt.
You cannot imagine... I tell you! you and your most loved ones wrapped together in a hideous sin—you do not see the place of evil where you live.

Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step.

 

King could not bear this accusation and started calling Tiresias with different bad names—fortune-teller and a deceitful beggar-priest. Tiresias and the king exchange harsh words and show what in Greek is called orge, or anger, towards each other. Oedipus suspects it a cunning plot of Creon against him (Since Creon, as Jocasta's brother, was and still is a potential successor to the throne). However, Tiresias thinks the king is mad for not believing him and for being blind to his fate.

Oedipus, for the first time, realized that he did not know who his real mother was. It was because Tiresias goes out while saying:

 

Oedipus will be discovered to be a brother as well as a father to his children, a son as well as a husband to the same woman, and the killer of his father.

 

The king finally realizes the irony of fate and says in tears:

 

O light! May I never look on you again,
I who am revealed as born in shame,
joined in shameful marriage, in shameful murder!

[He exits and the Chorus enters, warning of the implications of the decisive, oracular charges against Oedipus.]

 

ACT II

Creon expresses great desire to prove his innocence to Oedipus, who continues to assert that Creon has been plotting to usurp the throne. Creon denies the accusations saying:

 

He is quite content and would not want the cares and responsibilities that come with being king.

 

But Oedipus remains unconvinced and calls for his death. Jocasta, having heard of their quarrel, enters and tries to pacify them, and the Chorus calls for proof of Creon's guilt before Oedipus punishes him. Jocasta reminds Oedipus of Apollo's oracle and also of the way Laius died. She recounts the story as it was told to her by a servant (shepherd) who was there at the crossroads where a charioteer and an old man (king Laius) attacked a man (Oedipus), who in turn killed them both. Hearing the tale, Oedipus realized that he was the murderer and asks to consult the witness, the shepherd, who is sent for. The Chorus expresses its trust in the gods and prays to Heaven for a restoration of faith in the oracle.

 

ACT III

Jocasta prays to Apollo (god) to restore Oedipus' sanity, since he has been acting strange since hearing the way Laius's died. In the meantime, a messenger from the neighbouring state appears and tells Jocasta that King Polybus (the man Oedipus mistakenly believes to be his father) has died and that the people of Isthmus of Corinth want Oedipus to rule over them.

Oedipus hopes this news means that the oracle is false {He hasn't killed his father since Polybus (his so-called father) has died of old age}, but he still fears that he may have married his mother. But the messenger clarifies Oedipus at the same time that Polybus was not his father and that a shepherd (one of Laius's men) had handed him (the messenger shepherd) the child (Oedipus) to take him to Isthmus years before. Jocasta tries to intervene and stop the revelations, but Oedipus welcomes the news and orders to continue. 

ACT IV

In the meantime, the shepherd (who was sent for) enters and tells Oedipus, after a great deal of resistance, that he (Oedipus) is Laius's son and that it was he who had taken him away to his own country so as to avoid his fate {After learning the prophecy that her son would kill King Laius one day, Jocasta had ordered the shepherd to throw the infant Oedipus from the top of Mount Cithaeron (to die)}. The chorus bewails the change in Oedipus from revered and fortunate ruler to one who has plunged into the depths of wretchedness.

 

ACT V

A second messenger appears on the stage and reports that Jocasta has just committed suicide, having realized that she was married to her son and thus had given birth to his children. He also reports that the king, suffering intensely upon hearing the news of his identity, blinded himself with the Queen's brooches. Oedipus has also requested that he be shown to the people of Thebes and then exiled.

He appears on the stage, bewildered and crying, asking for shelter from his painful memory, which cannot be removed as easily his eyes, could be. In the darkness of his blindness, he wishes he were dead and feels the prophetic weight of the oracle. His blindness will allow him to avoid the sight of those whom he was destined to do wrong and toward whom he feels immense sorrow and guilt.

 

He asks Creon to lead him out of the country, to give Jocasta a proper burial, and to take care of his young daughters, Antigone and Ismene.

 

In an extremely moving final moment with his daughters, Oedipus hears them and asks them to hold his hands for the last time. He tells them that they will have difficult lives and will be punished by men for sins they did not commit; for this reason he implores Thebes to pity them.

 

But you, Creon — I beg you! You are their uncle,
their only father now, since we are lost...
Do not let them wander husbandless,
beggared and ruined! Pity them!
O men of Thebes, hear me — though I am nothing now,
pity these children at least! See them groaning
under the double curse of birth and fate!

 

He asks Creon again to exile him, and in his last speech he expresses regret at having to depart from his beloved children. The Chorus ends the play by using Oedipus' story to illustrate the famous moral that one should not judge a man's life until it is over.