ghost of King Laius. Oedipus has a nightmare of Anubis attacking him in his sleep, and Jocasta soothes him in an ironically maternal fashion. Act IV: The King A messenger from Corinth brings Oedipus news that his father, King Polybus, has died, and his mother Queen Merope is too senile to understand. As well, the messenger tells Oedipus that he was adopted, while Oedipus reveals he killed a man in a carriage many years past. After hearing that Oedipus was adopted, Jocasta exits, while Oedipus processes the new information. When he leaves to talk to his wife, he finds Jocasta having committed suicide. It is revealed that Oedipus is the son of Laius and Jocasta. Antigone enters and says that her mother is dead and that her father has stabbed his eyes. Oedipus sees the ghost of Jocasta, who leads Oedipus offstage. Departure from Sophocles The New York Times referred to The Infernal Machine as having taken, "...characters familiar from Greek tragedy off their pedestals and wittily humanized them while remaining true to Sophocles's plot. Oedipus, instead of a tragic hero, is a cocky, virginal youth whose arrogance is matched by his colossal naïveté. The relationship of Oedipus and Jocasta is treated as an extended Freudian joke. A vain, insecure woman obsessed with age, Jocasta has an eye for handsome young men, while Oedipus is drawn to older women who will cradle him like a child." Connection to Hamlet In a Modern Drama article, "The Infernal Machine, Hamlet, and Ernest Jones", Alberta E. Feynman claims that while writing, Cocteau not only referred to the original text of Sophocles, but to William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Feynman holds, "In constructing this new version, Cocteau drew chiefly, but not solely, upon the original myth. He fused the myth of Oedipus with that of another great tragic hero — Hamlet." Several similarities exist between the two plays, including each play opening on the walls of a city, striking similarities between the character of Tiresias and Polonius, and according to Hamlet and Oedipus by Ernest Jones, "Both authors — Cocteau and Shakespeare...depict protagonists driven by the mechanism of the Oedipus complex. References Further reading The Infernal Machine, translated into English by Carl Wildman. 1934 plays Incest in plays Plays by Jean Cocteau Plays based on works by Sophocles Works based on Oedipus Rex