Comparison of the Infernal Machine and Oedipus Rex (the King)The myth of Oedipus's incest and parricide has been told several times. The basic scenario remained the same. Oedipus leaves Corinth to try to escape a fate of incest and parricide. After leaving the city, he eventually saved Thebes from the Sphinx, becoming king of the city and thus fulfilling the prophecy. The character of Oedipus changes with each play to help give a different meaning to the myth as a whole. Cocteau's La Machine infernale and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex both center on myth, but their themes are different. By changing Oedipus' personality, his motivations, his relationship with Jocasta, his mother and his wife, as well as his character development, Cocteau makes his theme the idea of ​​the gods simply playing with humans, instead of resemble Sophocles' theme that man cannot escape his own destiny. Sophocles portrays Oedipus as an intelligent but overly proud man, but Cocteau depicts Oedipus as a selfish and not too intelligent man. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx and then becomes known for his intelligence. Teiresias, an old blind prophet, reminds him of this: “But it is in the answers to the riddles that you are strongest.” Sophie. OT 440. Oedipus' intelligence is also manifested in his curious nature. From the beginning, Oedipus searches for Laius's killer by asking many questions. This ultimately leads to his downfall, although Jocasta tries to get him to stop asking questions: "I beg you, do not seek this, I beg you, if you care about your own life." What I suffer is enough. (Soph. OT 1060-1063)Cocteau's Oedipus does not have to solve the riddle of the Sphinx because she gives him the answer in the middle of a sheet......Abrams, MH A glossary of literary terms , 7th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. Cocteau, Jean. The Infernal Machine and other plays. (Bermel, Albert.). New York: new directions. 1963. Ehrenberg, Victor. “Leaders of Sophoclea: Oedipus. » In Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Jaeger, Werner. “Sophocles’ Mastery of Character Development.” In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997. Sophocles. (1991). Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Grène, David.). Chicago: University of Chicago. Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. by F. Storr. no page. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixednew?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi