tand to avenge the murdered king promising the consequences do not diminish because of one's position: "And as for me, this curse applies no less If it should turn out that the culprit is my guest here, Sharing my hearth." Oedipus has said all of this before knowing any evidence. If he had just one clue that he could have been the unwitting culprit, would he have acted differently? As a strongly principled man, Oedipus, like Socrates when faced with compromising his principles, chooses death over compromise. When Oedipus realizes he may in fact be the culprit, he says "You are aware, I hope, that what you say means death for me, or exile at the least."Oedipus's quickness to take a position causes him to gouge his own eyes out and lose his power. It also costs Oedipus his wife and mother, along with his kids. No one will marry his daughter, because she has come from an incestuous marriage. Since no on e will marry his daughter, and his wife killed herself, Oedipus gouges out his own eyes in order to no be able to see what the world has done too him. The only problem is the fact that almost all of the Thebes know what he did, so they know that he killed Laius.Oedipus discovers that he has to do something to recover from his fall from power. The chorus cannot believe that even a great man like Oedipus, was brought low by destiny. He abdicates the thrown to Creon, and asks him to take care of his kids, and Creon agrees. He tells his kids to have a better life than he did. He feels that he is messing up his kids' life more than his own, especially his daughter. He thinks that no man in the world would marry her because of her incestuous birth. From the audience's standpoint, they can take away many meanings from this play. In the times when this play was written, the audience believed that the gods controlled what was going to happen to them. It was their destiny. Oedipus Rex proves to strengthen their belief in the gods. T...
