The play opens with a scene in which Oedipus and Jocasta learn that Polybus is dead. Oedipus takes the news in of Polybus's death without showing even the slightest sign of grief. The moment actually becomes a near triumph, as Oedipus believes his doubts about prophecies have been confirmed. He is now convinced that prophecies are useless. He even says, "But now, all those prophecies I feared-Polybus packs them off to sleep with him in hell! They're nothing, worthless." (Pg: 625,line's 1062–1064). Oedipus's strange glee reveals the extent to which he has withdrawn into himself after obtaining the knowledge that he killed his father.
             However, when Oedipus learns that there is still a piece of the puzzle left unsolved-the identity of the man from whom the messenger received the baby- he seems irresistibly driven to ask questions until the whole truth is out. Jocasta, of course, solves the riddle before Oedipus. She realizes she is his mother while he is still imagining himself to be the child of slaves. But he realizes so as to something is wrong when Jocasta leaves the stage screaming, but his speech at lines 1183–1194 is seems strangely joyful.
             "Let it burst! Whatever will, whatever must! I must know my birth; no matter how common it may be-I must see my origins face-to-face. She perhaps, she with her woman's pride may well be mortified by my birth, but I, I count myself the son of Chance, I'll never see myself disgraced. She is my mother! And the moons have marked me out, my blood brothers, one moon on the wane, the next moon great with power. That is my blood, my nature-I will never betray it, never fail to search and learn my birth!"
             When he speaks of Chance as his mother, and the waxing and waning moon his brothers, he re-envisions his earthly relationships as celestial ones as he announces his intent to uncover his true identity. It seems that he is unable to face di...