Oedipus the King and Mason’s Shiloh Essay - 908 Words

Oedipus the King and Mason’s Shiloh Shiloh, written by Bobbie Ann Mason, and Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, contain extremely different story lines but jointly have one unique quality, the role of the woman. In each of these stories, the females struggle to overcome one major obstacle plaguing them by using their inner-strength. Norma Jean from Shiloh fights to leave a seemingly endless marriage, and Jocasta from Oedipus the King struggles against an ill-fate. Norma Jean and Jocasta believe that they are strong enough to conquer these challenges, but, in the end, they both realize they are not strong enough and commit suicide because of this defeat. Norma Jean and Jocasta strive to beat the one main obstacle†¦show more content†¦Norma Jean and Jocasta do not realize until much later that neither are strong enough to overcome these challenges. A point comes where both Norma Jean and Jocasta believe that they have defeated their obstacles. Norma Jean takes Leroy to Shiloh, a battlefield in the South, in hopes of telling him that she soon will be leaving him and the marriage they once had. While picnicking near a cemetery, Norma Jean builds up enough strength to finally tell Leroy, I want to leave you (500). Surprising Leroy with this bold statement, Norma Jean thinks that she has acknowledged the ending of their marriage, and the preparation for this moment has paid off. Little does Norma Jean know of what is about to happen in her life. Jocasta also has a period of time when she believes that she has won her fight. She refuses to let fate rule her life. Jocasta assumes that she has defied fate when her husband, Laius, was supposedly killed by a group of men, and she had her son killed to save her husband from this ill fate. Jocasta explains to Oepidus, one night, how she manages to defy fate: But Laius, so the report goes at least, was killed by strangers, thieves, at a place where three roads meet . . . my son- he wasnt three days old and the boys father fastened his ankles, had a henchman fling him away on a barren, trackless mountain (2, 216-221). What Jocasta does not realize is that both of her