What Oedipus could teach us is how magnetic the pull is to repeat what we desperately wish to escape. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play, is the birth son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. ... She, as widowed wife to King Laius, recalls the story of the visit from an oracle to Laius that told him how his own son would be the one to cause his death, and how in the fear of this fate, Laius bound his three-day-old son's ankles and disposed of him on an uninhabited mountain. ... The messenger relates how he received the baby from another shepherd, who was a servant of the house of...

• Word Count: 1933
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Sigmund Freud suggests that Oedipus the King is known as a tragedy of destiny. ... The lesson which the deeply moved spectator should learn from the tragedy is submission to the divine will and realization of his own impotence. (102) Oedipus's fall is a result of fate because of the events that occur when Oedipus is an infant, a young man, and the king of Thebes. ... While Oedipus is an infant, the last incident that shows how uncontrollable fate can be is the servant's decision not to kill Oedipus. ... Oedipus's next action also demonstrates how humans cannot control fat...

• Word Count: 1505
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Dilly, Dally, Fatal Finale William Shakespeare's dramatic tragedy Hamlet is truly a work of art. ... He wants the murder of the King to be perfect. ... As Edward Wagenknecht puts it, "this is the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind." ... He took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit stands who knows save heaven. ... Some critics attribute Hamlets inability to act to an Oedipus complex. ...

• Word Count: 1772
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School