The saying “it’s a small world” really applies to the story of Oedipus. It definitely took some thought to create. It is very well thought out, and it is the perfect example of a tragedy. The tragedy is more in the reaction to the events that take place than in the events themselves. Oedipus is the perfect hero. He is smart, caring, full of himself, and brave; he has saved Thebes once, and he has been called to do it again.
Oedipus becomes obsessed with the task of finding the murderer of King Laius. He marries Laius’s widow, and gets the idea that Creon, his brother in law, has something to do with the murder and is trying to frame Oedipus. Little does he know that it is not framing at all. Oedipus soon learns that the prophecy everyone has so desperately tried to keep from coming true, has been fulfilled. His parents sent someone to the mountains to kill their son, Oedipus, but the child was never killed. He was given as a gift to another powerful couple who took him in as their own. When Oedipus was older, he left his parents so that he would not kill his father and sleep with his mother, but those were not his real parents anyway. On his way to Thebes, Oedipus kills a group of travelers, not knowing that Laius is one of them. He continues on to Thebes where he marries Jocasta, Laius’s widow. Laius and Jocasta are Oedipus’s parents. Crazy.
When Jocasta realizes that she cannot protect Oedipus from the truth, she kills herself. What tragedy would be complete without someone committing suicide? The end comes when Oedipus gouges his own eyes out. Blind and grief-stricken, Oedipus bemoans his fate. Oedipus does not consider the consequences of blinding himself, and later regrets the outcome. He and his family are looked upon as outcasts now, and he soon comes to hate himself more than anyone could ever hate him. Creon, Jocasta’s brother, grants Oedipus’s request and banishes him from Thebes, but not before consulting an oracle.