Jocasta's Shame

A detailed Summary of Jocasta's Shame

In the play Oedipus the King Queen Jocasta illustrates the devastating effects of perpetuating one's sin rather than confronting it. Motivated to hide her own shame, Jocasta sets into motion and perpetuates a series of events that she intended to prevent, but ultimately accepts at Oedipus' expense. Throughout the play she attempts to hide the truth by deceit and feigned disbelief.

Long before the play ever begins Jocasta sets into motion the events that lead up to the tragic ending of Oedipus the King. She was so ashamed to be the mother of a child with such a dismal future that she had him cast out onto a mountain. By this action and her lack of action as a parent she decided Oedipus' destiny. This is the first example of Jocastas's shame and deceit.

"...my son - he wasn't three days old and the boy's father fastened his ankles, had a henchman fling him away on a barren, trackless mountain."

Jocasta most certainly cast-out her son because of the shame he brought on her. Later in lines 1289-1291 we see the herdsman testify that Jocasta was the one who gave him the child with the charge to kill it. Now she is ashamed of what she did and to free herself from that guilt she conscious

"Hurry, fetch me the herdsman, now! Leave her to glory in her royal birth."

When Oedipus comes to Thebes before the beginning of the play, Jocasta's shame is compounded. Jocasta knew the prophecy that foretold the death of her husband by her son's hand, and her probable incestuous marriage. She believed the prophecy and had her son cast-out because of it. After her husband had died, a young stranger from a foreign land was to take her for his wife. Jocasta quickly identified this stranger, Oedipus, as her son from long ago. Her understanding of the prophecy, Oedipus' ankles, the sending away of the only witness to the murder of her husband, and her calmness after hearing Tiresias' accusations indicate that she knew Oedipus' true identity before their nuptial. Why did Jocasta marry Oedipus knowing he was her son? If Jocasta did not marry Oedipus she would have to give some reason. Had she cited the prophecy and said that he was her son she would heap shame on her head. She would have to publicly shame her son and herself by acknowledging that her son killed his father, her husband tried to kill her son and the prophecy was being fulfilled even after she tried to prevent it. Marrying and coupling with her son, with no one ever knowing the truth, was the only way Jocasta could escape public and private humiliation.

ly lies to herself and those around her about what happened.

Jocasta has suffered privately for years and years, but nothing is more terrifying to her than the public discovering her shame.

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Approximate Word count = 1329
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous