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Oedipus Rex is perhaps the most well-known play written by Sophocles. It is a rather tragic tale of Oedipus, son of Laius and Jocasta, who from birth was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Throughout the tragedy, the writer describes several types of familial love, including a parent’s love towards their children, the love of children toward their parents, and forbidden incestual love between a parent and a child. The last monologue of Oedipus in the play reveals his profound love for his children mixed with a sense of shame for the way they came into the world.
Oedipus is a tragic figure, as in his attempts to avoid a prophecy of patricide and incest, he unintentionally fulfills the prediction. Oedipus abandons his adoptive parents, believing that the prophecy concerns them. He kills his father, thinking he is an old beggar, and marries his widowed mother, the queen of Thebes, not knowing she gave birth to him. After he learns the truth and Jocasta commits suicide as she is unable to live with herself, Oedipus blinds himself and prepares to depart onto the life of exile (Oedipus 126). In the passage beginning on line 1480, Oedipus addresses his children, disclosing the truth to them and wishing them a better life (Oedipus 127).
As Oedipus talks with his children, it is clear that he sincerely feels guilty about the way they came into the world but loves them, nonetheless. His monologue reveals the depth of the love he has for his children and allows him to pass on his knowledge and insight so that they have a better life than the one he had.
The metaphors of sight and blindness play a crucial role throughout Oedipus Rex and in the last monologue of the titular character. Oedipus remained metaphorically blind to his unintended transgressions for a large part of the play. In his final addresses to his children, Oedipus references his previous lack of insight and the sight of his children. He states that he fathered them “all in blindness, with no thought of ill,” admitting his indiscretion and expressing regret for his actions (Sophocles 127).
The passage also mentions how wretched and pitiful he must be to his children’s sight after they learn the truth of the incestuous relationship between their mother, Jocasta, and father and half-brother, Oedipus. It can be argued that the word “sight” is specifically used to continue the metaphor of insight and blindness to the truth (Sophocles 127). When Oedipus learns the truth about his true parentage, he blinds himself, losing “his once brilliant eyes” that could not see the truth (Sophocles 127). However, he shows his love for his children by telling them the truth and breaking the cycle of his family being blind to it.
The motif of the value of knowledge and truth is raised in the discussed passage, with Oedipus being honest with his children. Throughout the play, Oedipus runs from the prophecy of him killing his father and engaging in an incestuous relationship with his mother. Nevertheless, the steps he takes to escape the foretold fate lead to the fulfillment of the prophecy – he unknowingly slays his father and marries the widowed queen, unaware that she is his mother.
Both Laius and Jocasta showed no love to Oedipus when deciding to kill the infant after learning about his future role in their deaths. Oedipus views his fate as unfair because he was robbed of the truth and the knowledge of his true parentage. It can be argued that he desires to spare his children the same fate. Although the reality of Oedipus and Jocasta’s relationship can damage his daughter’s future and the chances of starting a family as they “must wither childless and unwed,” he still tells them the truth (Sophocles 127). Thus, Oedipus shows his love to his children by bestowing the gift of truth that he was denied.
The love Oedipus as a father has for his children, who are also his half-siblings, can be noted in him wishing them a better life than the one he was granted by fate. Although he wanted to kill his and their mother once he found out the truth about their relationship, Oedipus never showed the same intentions toward his children in his last monologue. In the passage, he wishes for his children to “find more blessing than your father knew” (Sophocles 127).
The phrase can be interpreted as a father’s farewell to his children. However, as Oedipus himself was a victim of fate, it should be viewed as an imploration to the Gods to spare his children his fate. As a young man, Oedipus was full of hubris and believed he could escape the prophecy, inadvertently fulfilling it. Nevertheless, as the truth is finally revealed to him, he accepts the role of fate in one’s life. He asks fate to be more kind to his children and bless them, knowing from his own experience that it intervenes in every person’s life.
The depth of Oedipus’s love for his children is also shown in him wishing his bloodline to end. When realizing how his and Jocasta’s relationship will affect the lives of their children in society, Oedipus speaks the phrase “ye must wither childless and unwed” (Sophocles 127). This utterance is a statement of the fact that no man would want to marry his daughters as he would inherit by marriage “all those reproaches which have marred the name of both my parents and your name no less” (Sophocles 127).
However, it can also be argued that this phrase is a father’s decree to his daughters. He wishes his noble bloodline of the rulers of Thebes to end due to the shame that fate installed upon it. Oedipus realizes that his children’s lives will not be easy, despite his imploration to the Gods. Thus, he wants to ensure that their lives will be comfortable but insists on ending the bloodline and the cycle of suffering parents and children of his line inflicted upon each other. Oedipus breaks this cycle by insisting that his children remain unmarried and do not suffer his fate.
In summary, Oedipus Rex is a tragic tale of fate intervening in the titular character’s life, destined to murder his father and marry his mother. Oedipus leaves his adoptive family out of love to spare them from the prophecy, inadvertently setting it in motion. After killing his father, he then develops a romantic love for his mother, Jocasta. However, Oedipus’s deepest love is for his children, whom he addresses in his last monologue. He opens their eyes to the truth of his incestuous relationship with Jocasta and implores fate to grant them blessings, admitting his defeat and surrendering to fate. His last passage is the declaration of his love to his children, as he passes on to them the lessons he learned and states his wish for the family bloodline to end.
Work Cited
Sophocles. “The Seven Plays in English Verse.” The Project Gutenberg, The PG Online Distributed, 2004. Web.
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