The Use of Dismissive Language in Oedipus the King - Essay Example

Oedipus exclaims that he pollutes his victim’s bed. “Yea with these hands all gory I pollute The bed of him I slew!” (Storr, 01). In the expression, Jocasta is not the object or subject simply because she was not mentioned, and Oedipus calls it Lauis’ bed. This was a euphemism for sex with Jocasta, but Oedipus tries to hide the very envisioned meaning by dismissing Jocasta in Lauis’ life. Moreover, when speaking to Jocasta, the Senator dismisses her through a very diminutive statement that portrays the overall attitude that society held about women. “Lady, what hinders you from taking him into the house?” (Storr, 01). There were cultural restrictions that Senator knew prohibited women from taking men into the house but asks such a belligerent question just to provoke Jocasta who strives not to show that she is displeased by using a self-deprecatory tone. In the chorus, the word ‘womb’ features predominantly not to create a positive impression of the important role of reproduction that women play in society but to indicate how women were defined by their reproductive parts. Oedipus refers to Jocasta as his womb. “…teeming increase of the womb” (Storr, 01). Oedipus considers Jocasta not as his special wife, but as a womb that reproduces. To a greater extent, this portrays the role that women were allocated in the then society. This vicious and horrific portrayal of the women’s role is further bolstered when revulsion and devastation befall women who try to deviate from their role and venture into more universally acceptable roles as might be interpreted in contemporary society. Women are portrayed as people who should not be dreaded, and men should deal with them with a lot of self-assurance. A statement like “Who is this woman about whom ye fear?” indicates that women should not be feared under any circumstance (Storr, 01). Moreover, Oedipus believes that his sons will triumph in their later lives regardless of their ancestry but pities his daughters’ lives and wonders who might want to marry them and make them the mother of their children. In pitying his daughters’ lives, he uses degenerative language that creates a solicitous attitude toward the daughters. Women must reiterate their power by rebuffing Oedipal genderization and grip a matriphallic sexuality and a redemptive matriarchal cognizance that will allow them to be respected as complete human beings and not as reproductive organs (Joseph, 12).