Discuss the character of Jocasta briefly in the play Oedipus Rex.

Jocasta is the wife and mother of Oedipus. In her first
scene, she is extremely upset when Creon and Oedipus are arguing. She shames them,
reminding them that the country is in a state of suffering from the plague that resides
on the country. She stops the argument.

At first, Jocasta
is convinced that Oedipus could not have been King Laius's murderer. She claims that
highwaymen killed King Laius:

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She assures Oedipus that the oracle proclaiming
Laius's murder by his own son was false, since Laius was killed by highwaymen, and his
son had been left "to die on a lonely
mountainside."

With that
being said, Oedipus begins thinking about the man he killed on the highway. He remembers
killing a man on the highway. They send for the messenger who witnessed King Laius's
murder. He begins sharing the details.

While Oedipus is
adding up the details, Jocasta is also filling in the blanks. When she realizes that
Oedipus is her son and husband, she cannot bear to think upon
it.

Jocasta tries to stop the messenger form stating what
she has just figured out:

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Later in the same scene she tries to stop him
from questioning the messenger regarding his true father: "May you never learn who you
are!"

She is realizing that
Oedipus is indeed her son. She cannot bear to live with the fact. She goes to her room
and hangs herself.

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In her final speech she calls Oedipus
"miserable'' and says she will have no other name for him. Towards the end of the play a
second messenger reports that she has hanged herself, giving a moving account of her
wailing and physical expressions of grief during her last
moments.