EN 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 33: Incest, Eteocles, Polynices
Document Summary
Almost every character who dies in the three theban plays does so at his or her own hand (or own will, as is the case in oedipus at colonus). Jocasta hangs herself in oedipus the king and antigonehangs herself in antigone. Eurydice and haemon stab themselves at the end of antigone. Oedipus inflicts horrible violence on himself at the end of his first play, and willingly goes to his own mysterious death at the end of his second. Polynices and eteocles die in battle with one another, and it could be argued that polynices" death at least is self-inflicted in that he has heard his father"s curse and knows that his cause is doomed. Incest motivates or indirectly brings about all of the deaths in these plays. References to eyesight and vision, both literal and metaphorical, are very frequent in all three of the theban plays.
