The Role of the Past in two plays
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I need to write about describing these two plays. I also need to come up with a thesis.
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This solution discusses how the past plays a role in the lives of the main characters in Oedipus Rex and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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Oedipus Rex: In this play Oedipus is the king of Thebes who became king 12 years prior in gratitude for hsi freeing the people from the pestilence that Sphinx brought upon them. Since the former King Laius had shortly before been killed, Oedipus had been further honored by the hand of Queen Jocasta.
Now another deadly pestilence is raging and the people have come to ask Oedipus to rescue them again. The King anticipated this, however Creon, Jocasta's brother, returns at the very moment from Apollo's oracle with the announcement that once Laius' murderer would be found and banished from the city everything would be fine.
In an effort to find the killer Oedipus sends for the blind seer, Tiresias. Under protest the prophet names Oedipus as the criminal. Oedipus gets angry and denouces the accusation as a plot of Creon to gain the throne. Jocasta appears in time to break up a fight between the two men. She assures Oedipus that seers can mistakes too. In proof she cites the old prophecy that her son should kill his father and have children with his mother. She prevented this fulfillment by abandoning her infant son in the mountains. Jocasta tell Oedipus that Laius had been killed by robbers years later at the junction of three roads on the way to Delphi.
This information makes Oedipus uneasy. He remembers having killed a man that fit Laius' description when he was fleeing his home in Corinth to avoid fulfillment of a similar prophecy. An old messenger arrives from Corinth to announce the death of King Polybus, supposed father of Oedipus and election of Oedipus in his stead. On account of ...
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