is fated to carry out the prophecy that involves him killing his father and marrying his mother, even with him making his best attempts of trying to avoid it. Although this story is mainly centered around Oedipus' affliction and torture it cast a shadow over the emotional despair that comes upon Jocasta, Oedipus' wife and mother. Jocasta's role in Oedipus the King, though overlooked many times over, is an influential element in the tragedy's theme of one's inability to escape their fate. It is a recurring question whether or not Jocasta was mindful that Oedipus was once the son she had "pierced by the ankles" before they became one in a marital alliance after he defeated the Sphinx. This blindness, for that reason, provided a climatic addition
