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Michael Kadish
2/20/96
.5
The storyline of Oedipus Rex does a brilliant job to set the scene for its sequal- Antigone. This is mainly demonstrated through the stories use of fate, irony, and its use of character. The fate, showing what happens to the incestuously begotten children demonstrates the consequenses of their father's anger and of his murderous acts, years before. The irony is shown whith Creon's outcome. The character of Creon, whom we had just begun to see a second side of, in Oedipus is fully explored, with his faults causing nearly every death, after Iokaste.
The fate of Antigone relies on all that had transpired throughout Oedipus. First, fate decreed that the incestuous royal blood line must be stopped. The climax of Oedipus is that of Oedipus and his queen discovering the true identity of their spouses. Throughout the play however, the feelings of the children are never considered or brought up. Certainly, this wasn't good news to them. In fact, they are understandably suicidally depressed. This could have been predicted by looking at their family. Their father simply blinded himself and ran away. Their mother killed herself. In most families, the children are half of their father, half of their mother. In this case however, the children had one half of their mother in their father. They were three fourths their mother and subconciously imitated her actions.
This said, they did not kill themselves over the news exactly. When Antigone could not marry Haman she killed herself. Fate ordained this. Oedipus's children had so much of Iakaste's blood in them, that they had to imitate her exit