5 marks Question & Answer of Oedipus The King

1. The Character of Jocasta ?

- More surprising than Sophocles' men are his women. He certainly  understood the conversional idea of women hood as it was held in Periclean "Athens". The superiority which they display is not a woman's but a man's in it unflinching purpose and refusal to compromise. Jocasta is such type of a tragic heroin who breaks the limits proper to women hood for wrong reason and to her own great harm she appears only in the final sense of "Oedipus the King". To begin with she attempts to make peace between Oedipus and Crown, pleading with Oedipus not to banish her brother. She comforts her husband Oedipus calmly tries to urge him  to reject Tiresias prophesies as falls. Affection is the driving force her character. Her love for Oedipus makes her shun the truth and then kill her self. She salves the riddle of Oedipus's identity before Oedipus does. The way she keeps the whole things a secret from Oedipus's knowledge is really wonderful. But her tragic end is Poignant.

2.The character of Tiresias?  

- Tiresias is the blind sooth sayer of Thebes. He tells Oedipus that he is the murder king Laius and Oedipus does not believe him. He abuses Tiresias -" Shameless and brainless, sightless, senseless but Tiresias warns Oedipus again and again. When Oedipus accuses Tiresias of being in a conspiracy with Creon to over throw him, he tells Oedipus "your enemy is yourself". the appearance of Tiresias in  Oedipus The King has a wonderful dramatic value. It is ironical to note that Oedipus who accuses Tiresias of blindness is himself blind to the truth. In other words the literal blindness of Oedipus who refuses to believe the truth about himself. His blindness to truth leads to his ctual blindness at the end of the play when he knows the truth.