Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
A. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
B. Summary
The play of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is a brilliantly written, incredibly complex tragedy that is widely known and influential. It is the story of a man who unknowingly killed his father, married his mother, and fulfilled every prophesy ever made of him in his attempts to avoid them. Oedipus is the king of Thebes, but Thebes has fallen under a terrible plague and its people are dying and the city is falling. To find out what he needs to do to save his city, Oedipus sends Creon to the Oracle at Delphi for information and sends for Tiresias, an old, blind prophet. Creon returns and says that the plague would end when the murderer of Laius, the former king of Thebes, is caught and exiled, and that the murderer was still within the walls of the city. Oedipus swears that he will find out who murdered his predecessor, and drive him out of Thebes. The blind prophet, Tiresias, brings forth further, more troublesome information. Oedipus asks him what he knows about the murder, and at first, Tiresias is reluctant to say anything about it. He does not want to say the truth because he said the truth was too painful to receive. Oedipus insults and curses the old man, even accuse him as the murderer of Laius, and finally provokes Tiresias into revealing that it is Oedipus himself who is the murderer. Oedipus refuses this, and begins to accuse Creon and Tiresias of making up such things in an attempt to overthrow him. Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife and widow of King Laius, walks in on Oedipus threatening Creon with death or exile for conspiring against him and she asks what is going on. Oedipus tells her that prophet accused him of the murder of Laius but Jocasta not only states that she does not believe in any prophecies but that they are just blatantly untrue. Her reasoning for this was because she said that it was prophesized that Laius would be killed by his son, but her son was sent out Thebes as a baby (by Jocasta herself but no one knew that) and Laius was killed by a band of thieves. She goes on to describe how he died, but Oedipus because to get a sick feeling in his stomach as he recognizes the description and realizes that he may in fact have been the killer of Laius, even though he didn’t mean to do it. He explains to Jocasta that while he was still a prince back at Corinth, he hear someone say that he was not the biological son of his parents in Corinth and so he sought answers from an oracle at Delphi. The Oracle didn’t answer him directly, but told him that he would murder his father and kill his mother. In an attempt to make sure this was never fulfilled, Oedipus left Corinth with plans to never return. On his way to Thebes, he was harassed by a group of travelers whom he killed in self-defense, and the description of Laius’s murder was exactly what happened when Oedipus killed the group of travelers. There was a survivor, though, and Oedipus sends for that particular shepherd with hopes that Oedipus will not be identified as the Laius’ killer. Meanwhile, Jocasta is approached by a messenger and tells her that Polybus, the King of Corinth and Oedipus’ father, has died and they want Oedipus to return to Corinth as king. Jocasta is ecstatic, because she thinks that this means it disproves the prophecy that Oedipus just told her about, because his father had died of natural causes. She was rejoicing but though Oedipus was comforting in that half of the prophecy was disproved, he was reluctant to go because he still feared the other half where he was to sleep with his mother. The messenger says that he doesn’t need to fret because Polybus and the queen, Merope, were not his biological parents. The messenger was fully aware that Oedipus came to Corinth as an orphan because he was the shepherd who brought him there. Long ago, another shepherd approached him in the field carrying baby Oedipus with his ankles pinned together and gave Oedipus to him, he then giving Oedipus to the royal family where they raised him as their own. Oedipus asked the messenger who the shepherd was that gave him the baby, and the messenger replied with a servant of Laius. Jocasta was beginning to suspect the truth in all of this, she was seeing where things correlated and where her past actions may be beginning to come in to play, and begged Oedipus to seek no more information. But Oedipus had already summoned the other shepherd, and Jocasta ran back into the palace. The shepherd arrives and Oedipus questions him, asking where he got the baby, or Oedipus, and after threats of torture he says that the child came from the house of Laius. After further questioning, the shepherd says that the child was in fact specifically the child of Laius, and it was Jocasta herself who gave him the infant, ordering him to kill it, as it was prophesized to kill its parents. But as the shepherd felt pity for the child, he felt that if he were to grow up in a foreign city that he could also avoid the prophecy, and so he took the child to Corinth. Coming to the realization of who he is and who his true, biological parents are, Laius and Jocasta, Oedipus screams and runs away, back into the palace. The play ends dramatically, described by a third messenger. Oedipus finds Jocasta has hung herself and is now dead. He takes the pin from her robes and gauges out his own eyes, blinding himself. He went to Creon, bleeding, blind, and begging Creon for exile and for him to look after his daughters and take over as ruler of Thebes. Creon, covetous of royal power, is all too happy to oblige.
C. Major Characters
Oedipus: Oedipus was the current king of Thebes, thought to be son of Polybus and Merope (king and queen of Corinth) husband and son to Jocasta (widow of Laius) and killer and son to Laius (former king of Thebes). Oedipus did not intentionally kill his father or marry his mother; all of these prophecies became true thanks to the actions the characters took to avoid them. Laius was told that his son would kill him, so his wife Jocasta sent him away to make sure that never happened, this baby being Oedipus, but the shepherd had pity on him and gave him to another shepherd in Corinth who gave him to the royal family of Polybus and Merope. As Oedipus grew up, he was told that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, and so he ran away so that this would never become true. On his journey from Corinth to Thebes, he ran into a group of travelers that began harassing him, among that group was Laius, and Oedipus killed them in self-defense, killing Laius, his biological father, in the process. Then, he continued to Thebes where he met Jocasta, thinking they had no relation to one another, they got married, and Oedipus therefore fulfilled the prophecy of killing his father and sleeping his mother and so a plague soon falls on Thebes and the story of Oedipus Rex and the story of how all of this comes to the tragic realization. At the end of the play, Oedipus blinds himself with his wife’s, and mother’s, broaches and then sentences himself to exiles, only after the suicide of his wife… and mother.
Jocasta: Jocasta is the widow of Laius, and mother and wife to Oedipus. Jocasta is vital to the story because in her attempt to make sure that the prophecies over her family never come true, she actually sets them in stone. While Laius ruled over Thebes and she was married to him, they had a son together but it was prophesized that their son would kill his father and sleep with his mother, so Jocasta sent for a shepherd and gave their baby to him telling the shepherd to kill the child. That child was Oedipus, and the shepherd had pity on him and gave him to another shepherd in Corinth where he was given to the royal family of Polybus and Merope. Oedipus then grew up thinking they were his parents, and when he heard this prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his father, he ran away, and on his journey away from Corinth he unintentionally killed his father unknowingly through self-defense and then married his mother who he thought to be a stranger when he entered Thebes, thereby fulfilling the prophecy and bringing the plague on Thebes. When all of this is discovered, Jocasta commits suicide by hanging herself.
Tiresias: he was the blind prophet that informs Oedipus that he did, in fact, kill Laius. In the beginning of the play, when the plague initially fell on Thebes, Oedipus sent Creon, his wife’s brother to an Oracle at Delphi for information and he sent for Tiresias for information. They both said that there was a plague on the city because the murderer of former king of Thebes, Laius, was still within the walls of the city, but Tiresias was the one who actually know who the murderer was. Oedipus vowed that he would find the killer and drive him wont, truly being entirely unaware of what he had done, and he asked Tiresias to tell him who the killer was. He hesitated at first, but Oedipus forced it out of him and Tiresias told him that it was Oedipus himself that killed Laius. He did not believe him of course and accused him of conspiring against him, but of course, it was all proved true later on in the play.
Creon: Creon is the bother of Jocasta. In the beginning of the play when the plague initially falls on Thebes, Oedipus sends him to Delphi to consult with the Oracle for information as to why this was happening. When he returns, Oedipus had also sought help from Tiresias, who eventually says that it was Oedipus himself that was the reason for the plague, because he was the murderer of Laius and the plague was on Thebes because the murderer of the former king, Laius, was still within the walls of the city. Oedipus killed Laius unknowingly, and so he obviously denies this and accuses both Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against him. At the end of the play, when Jocasta is dead and Oedipus has blinded himself, he exiles himself and begs Creon to watch over his two daughters and take over as ruler over Thebes which he is more than happy to do.
Messenger from Corinth: This messenger and shepherd by profession plays a huge rule in the play. He first appears in the story officially because he is reporting to Oedipus and Jocasta to tell Oedipus that king of Corinth, Polybus, and the thought to be father of Oedipus had just died and that they wanted him to return to Corinth to take over as ruler. A few moments later he is required to put forth the game changing information that Polybus and the queen of Corinth Merope are not the biological parents of Oedipus, he knows this first hand because he was the one who gave Oedipus to them as a baby. He says that when he was in the field tending to his sheep, he was approached by another shepherd carrying a baby who was bound by the ankles. He said that that shepherd gave him the child which was Oedipus, and he gave Oedipus as a gift to the royal family of Corinth, Polybus and Merope.
Shepherd: this shepherd is also vital because he is the shepherd who gives baby Oedipus to the other shepherd, also known as the messenger of Corinth, who gives the baby to the royal family of Corinth, Polybus and Merope. When Laius was still alive and king of Thebes, he was married to Jocasta and they had a child together. It was prophesized, though, that their child would kill his father and sleep with his mother, so Jocasta called for this shepherd and told him to kill the child. But, the shepherd had pity on him, and just gave him to another shepherd in Corinth thinking that if he grew up in another town away from his biological parents, then the prophecy could never be fulfilled, but all it did was set it in stone. That second shepherd then gave Oedipus to Polybus and Merope, king and queen of Corinth, and when Oedipus grew up and heard of his prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother then he ran away from who he believed to be his mother and father and on his journey he killed his biological father and married his biological mother who he believed to be strangers.
D. Setting
The entire play of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is placed in the ancient Greek city of Thebes, and there is a historical reasoning for this placement of the setting which goes along with the characteristics of not only Greek tragedies but characteristics Greek history. There are other locations that are visited in the play, like Corinth, where important events takes place, but the bulk of the play is in Thebes. Oedipus grew up in Corinth with whom he thought to be his biological parents but then he ran away to Thebes to avoid the prophecy in killing his father and marrying his mother in which he only set it in stone. When it comes to characteristics of Greek tragedies, the reason why Thebes is the bulk location of the setting in this play is because unity of place was one of the most importance characteristics in Greek tragedies. This play, after all, is a sickening tragedy, and the setting needs only mirror that, which is where characteristics of Greek history come into play with the setting of the ancient Greek city of Thebes. A plague has fallen over the city and transformed the city into a barren waste land where they stay and it is there where the tragedy reveals itself. Oedipus Rex is an Athenian play, and the plague that falls over Thebes is actually based on a plague that had once fallen over Athens. Why not just place the play in Athens? Greek play writers were actually not allowed to place a play in their home town.
E. Types of conflict
Man v. man: The man v. man conflict arises in the prophecies and some interaction with the characters. In the prophecies, they say that Oedipus will kill his father, and sleep with his mother. Later on in the story, Oedipus fulfills this prophecy by unknowingly killing his father in a conflict with a stranger. Minor conflicts come up with other strangers as well, such as when Oedipus accuses Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against him.
Man v. self: we see the man v. self conflict through the character of Jocasta. As the story gets nearer and nearer to the climax, she begins putting the puzzle pieces together. She knows that all prophecies have been fulfilled. Before she comes to turns with it, she begs Oedipus to stop seeking further information, to just let it be, because she could take no more proof that she had in fact married her own son, but it eventually became too much and she takes her own life because of it.
Man v. society: prophecies are made against the family of Laius, Jocasta and Oedipus, as they try and fight so hard to make sure that they never ever become true, they just prove them to be true and set them in stone.
F. Three Major Themes
1. Fate and decisions
Fate and decisions play a very large rule in this play, because the characters see their fate through prophecies, and then make decisions to make sure that they never are fulfilled but in the end only set them in stone. Ultimately it is the decisions they make to avoid their fate that bring on the fate they so fear.
2. Thirst for Knowledge and its poison
Oedipus seeks knowledge about several things, why there is a plague on the city, who killed Laius, who gave the shepherd the baby, who was that baby, and ultimately, all of these questions lead to his downfall. These questions that his wife, and mother, Jocasta urged him not to ask because she saw what they were leading up to, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle the truth once it was all proven, the knowledge that Oedipus attained was poisonous.
3. Determination
Determination is one of the prime characteristics in both Oedipus and Jocasta, which really makes sense in the end because Jocasta is his mother. Oedipus has determination to seek knowledge and Jocasta has determination to make sure that the prophecies held against her family never come true yet the determination of both characters just seal their fate and the prophecies against them.
G. Symbols
1. Scarred Ankles
Oedipus has scarred ankles because when Jocasta sent him away as a child, the bound his ankles because the plan was to abandon him on a mountainside, and the bounding left scars. Even his name Oedipus translates from Greek into swollen foot. But these scars are symbolic because they mark him for suffering ever since he was just a boy and the highlight his ignorance. Even though he has the evidence of being the son of Laius and Jocasta on his ankles his whole life, he still never knows and when he finds out and doesn’t even believe it. You would think Jocasta would have known.
2. Cross roads
Cross roads are symbolic because they symbolize choices. Oedipus unknowingly killed his father Laius at a place where three roads met. It was a fateful decision made at a crossroads, even if Oedipus just thought he was making the decision to kill a stranger.
3. Eyes, Vision, and Blindness
This is probably the most powerful symbol in the play. While some have vision, they are blind and while some are blind, they can see but sometimes even after you attain sight or vision, you are blind. Oedipus had sight, he could literally see, but he was blind to the facts. Blind to the facts of the prophecy that he unknowingly and unintentionally fulfilled, and blind to help of others, such as the literally blind man who had more sight than Oedipus, Tiresias. He was literally blind, yet he knew the truth, he could see. And then, very, very ironically, after Oedipus saw the truth, after he knew, after he could see, he blinded himself, and he no longer literally had sight, even though he had attained sight of his situation.
H. Photo and Video pertaining to Oedipus Rec by Sophocles (URL’s of the photo and video)
Photo:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSNxUfp0tOyOocoxERhspYyUlGPEaVSQLr6Xhrlj9NpU7eP1b4L9g
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyek9Ddus4
I. MLA Citations
http://www.gradesaver.com/oedipus-rex-or-oedipus-the-king/study-guide/character-list/
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/oedipus-trilogy/character-list.html
http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Oedipus_The_King/Oedipus_Rex02.html
http://summarycentral.tripod.com/oedipusrex.htm
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/oed/CHR.html
http://www.shmoop.com/oedipus-the-king/crossroads-symbol.html
http://www.shmoop.com/oedipus-the-king/scars-on-oedipus-feet-symbol.html
http://www.shmoop.com/oedipus-the-king/themes.html
http://www.litcharts.com/lit/oedipusrex/symbols
http://aplitsota.blogspot.com/
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSNxUfp0tOyOocoxERhspYyUlGPEaVSQLr6Xhrlj9NpU7eP1b4L9g
A. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
B. Summary
The play of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is a brilliantly written, incredibly complex tragedy that is widely known and influential. It is the story of a man who unknowingly killed his father, married his mother, and fulfilled every prophesy ever made of him in his attempts to avoid them. Oedipus is the king of Thebes, but Thebes has fallen under a terrible plague and its people are dying and the city is falling. To find out what he needs to do to save his city, Oedipus sends Creon to the Oracle at Delphi for information and sends for Tiresias, an old, blind prophet. Creon returns and says that the plague would end when the murderer of Laius, the former king of Thebes, is caught and exiled, and that the murderer was still within the walls of the city. Oedipus swears that he will find out who murdered his predecessor, and drive him out of Thebes. The blind prophet, Tiresias, brings forth further, more troublesome information. Oedipus asks him what he knows about the murder, and at first, Tiresias is reluctant to say anything about it. He does not want to say the truth because he said the truth was too painful to receive. Oedipus insults and curses the old man, even accuse him as the murderer of Laius, and finally provokes Tiresias into revealing that it is Oedipus himself who is the murderer. Oedipus refuses this, and begins to accuse Creon and Tiresias of making up such things in an attempt to overthrow him. Jocasta, Oedipus’ wife and widow of King Laius, walks in on Oedipus threatening Creon with death or exile for conspiring against him and she asks what is going on. Oedipus tells her that prophet accused him of the murder of Laius but Jocasta not only states that she does not believe in any prophecies but that they are just blatantly untrue. Her reasoning for this was because she said that it was prophesized that Laius would be killed by his son, but her son was sent out Thebes as a baby (by Jocasta herself but no one knew that) and Laius was killed by a band of thieves. She goes on to describe how he died, but Oedipus because to get a sick feeling in his stomach as he recognizes the description and realizes that he may in fact have been the killer of Laius, even though he didn’t mean to do it. He explains to Jocasta that while he was still a prince back at Corinth, he hear someone say that he was not the biological son of his parents in Corinth and so he sought answers from an oracle at Delphi. The Oracle didn’t answer him directly, but told him that he would murder his father and kill his mother. In an attempt to make sure this was never fulfilled, Oedipus left Corinth with plans to never return. On his way to Thebes, he was harassed by a group of travelers whom he killed in self-defense, and the description of Laius’s murder was exactly what happened when Oedipus killed the group of travelers. There was a survivor, though, and Oedipus sends for that particular shepherd with hopes that Oedipus will not be identified as the Laius’ killer. Meanwhile, Jocasta is approached by a messenger and tells her that Polybus, the King of Corinth and Oedipus’ father, has died and they want Oedipus to return to Corinth as king. Jocasta is ecstatic, because she thinks that this means it disproves the prophecy that Oedipus just told her about, because his father had died of natural causes. She was rejoicing but though Oedipus was comforting in that half of the prophecy was disproved, he was reluctant to go because he still feared the other half where he was to sleep with his mother. The messenger says that he doesn’t need to fret because Polybus and the queen, Merope, were not his biological parents. The messenger was fully aware that Oedipus came to Corinth as an orphan because he was the shepherd who brought him there. Long ago, another shepherd approached him in the field carrying baby Oedipus with his ankles pinned together and gave Oedipus to him, he then giving Oedipus to the royal family where they raised him as their own. Oedipus asked the messenger who the shepherd was that gave him the baby, and the messenger replied with a servant of Laius. Jocasta was beginning to suspect the truth in all of this, she was seeing where things correlated and where her past actions may be beginning to come in to play, and begged Oedipus to seek no more information. But Oedipus had already summoned the other shepherd, and Jocasta ran back into the palace. The shepherd arrives and Oedipus questions him, asking where he got the baby, or Oedipus, and after threats of torture he says that the child came from the house of Laius. After further questioning, the shepherd says that the child was in fact specifically the child of Laius, and it was Jocasta herself who gave him the infant, ordering him to kill it, as it was prophesized to kill its parents. But as the shepherd felt pity for the child, he felt that if he were to grow up in a foreign city that he could also avoid the prophecy, and so he took the child to Corinth. Coming to the realization of who he is and who his true, biological parents are, Laius and Jocasta, Oedipus screams and runs away, back into the palace. The play ends dramatically, described by a third messenger. Oedipus finds Jocasta has hung herself and is now dead. He takes the pin from her robes and gauges out his own eyes, blinding himself. He went to Creon, bleeding, blind, and begging Creon for exile and for him to look after his daughters and take over as ruler of Thebes. Creon, covetous of royal power, is all too happy to oblige.
C. Major Characters
Oedipus: Oedipus was the current king of Thebes, thought to be son of Polybus and Merope (king and queen of Corinth) husband and son to Jocasta (widow of Laius) and killer and son to Laius (former king of Thebes). Oedipus did not intentionally kill his father or marry his mother; all of these prophecies became true thanks to the actions the characters took to avoid them. Laius was told that his son would kill him, so his wife Jocasta sent him away to make sure that never happened, this baby being Oedipus, but the shepherd had pity on him and gave him to another shepherd in Corinth who gave him to the royal family of Polybus and Merope. As Oedipus grew up, he was told that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, and so he ran away so that this would never become true. On his journey from Corinth to Thebes, he ran into a group of travelers that began harassing him, among that group was Laius, and Oedipus killed them in self-defense, killing Laius, his biological father, in the process. Then, he continued to Thebes where he met Jocasta, thinking they had no relation to one another, they got married, and Oedipus therefore fulfilled the prophecy of killing his father and sleeping his mother and so a plague soon falls on Thebes and the story of Oedipus Rex and the story of how all of this comes to the tragic realization. At the end of the play, Oedipus blinds himself with his wife’s, and mother’s, broaches and then sentences himself to exiles, only after the suicide of his wife… and mother.
Jocasta: Jocasta is the widow of Laius, and mother and wife to Oedipus. Jocasta is vital to the story because in her attempt to make sure that the prophecies over her family never come true, she actually sets them in stone. While Laius ruled over Thebes and she was married to him, they had a son together but it was prophesized that their son would kill his father and sleep with his mother, so Jocasta sent for a shepherd and gave their baby to him telling the shepherd to kill the child. That child was Oedipus, and the shepherd had pity on him and gave him to another shepherd in Corinth where he was given to the royal family of Polybus and Merope. Oedipus then grew up thinking they were his parents, and when he heard this prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his father, he ran away, and on his journey away from Corinth he unintentionally killed his father unknowingly through self-defense and then married his mother who he thought to be a stranger when he entered Thebes, thereby fulfilling the prophecy and bringing the plague on Thebes. When all of this is discovered, Jocasta commits suicide by hanging herself.
Tiresias: he was the blind prophet that informs Oedipus that he did, in fact, kill Laius. In the beginning of the play, when the plague initially fell on Thebes, Oedipus sent Creon, his wife’s brother to an Oracle at Delphi for information and he sent for Tiresias for information. They both said that there was a plague on the city because the murderer of former king of Thebes, Laius, was still within the walls of the city, but Tiresias was the one who actually know who the murderer was. Oedipus vowed that he would find the killer and drive him wont, truly being entirely unaware of what he had done, and he asked Tiresias to tell him who the killer was. He hesitated at first, but Oedipus forced it out of him and Tiresias told him that it was Oedipus himself that killed Laius. He did not believe him of course and accused him of conspiring against him, but of course, it was all proved true later on in the play.
Creon: Creon is the bother of Jocasta. In the beginning of the play when the plague initially falls on Thebes, Oedipus sends him to Delphi to consult with the Oracle for information as to why this was happening. When he returns, Oedipus had also sought help from Tiresias, who eventually says that it was Oedipus himself that was the reason for the plague, because he was the murderer of Laius and the plague was on Thebes because the murderer of the former king, Laius, was still within the walls of the city. Oedipus killed Laius unknowingly, and so he obviously denies this and accuses both Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against him. At the end of the play, when Jocasta is dead and Oedipus has blinded himself, he exiles himself and begs Creon to watch over his two daughters and take over as ruler over Thebes which he is more than happy to do.
Messenger from Corinth: This messenger and shepherd by profession plays a huge rule in the play. He first appears in the story officially because he is reporting to Oedipus and Jocasta to tell Oedipus that king of Corinth, Polybus, and the thought to be father of Oedipus had just died and that they wanted him to return to Corinth to take over as ruler. A few moments later he is required to put forth the game changing information that Polybus and the queen of Corinth Merope are not the biological parents of Oedipus, he knows this first hand because he was the one who gave Oedipus to them as a baby. He says that when he was in the field tending to his sheep, he was approached by another shepherd carrying a baby who was bound by the ankles. He said that that shepherd gave him the child which was Oedipus, and he gave Oedipus as a gift to the royal family of Corinth, Polybus and Merope.
Shepherd: this shepherd is also vital because he is the shepherd who gives baby Oedipus to the other shepherd, also known as the messenger of Corinth, who gives the baby to the royal family of Corinth, Polybus and Merope. When Laius was still alive and king of Thebes, he was married to Jocasta and they had a child together. It was prophesized, though, that their child would kill his father and sleep with his mother, so Jocasta called for this shepherd and told him to kill the child. But, the shepherd had pity on him, and just gave him to another shepherd in Corinth thinking that if he grew up in another town away from his biological parents, then the prophecy could never be fulfilled, but all it did was set it in stone. That second shepherd then gave Oedipus to Polybus and Merope, king and queen of Corinth, and when Oedipus grew up and heard of his prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother then he ran away from who he believed to be his mother and father and on his journey he killed his biological father and married his biological mother who he believed to be strangers.
D. Setting
The entire play of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles is placed in the ancient Greek city of Thebes, and there is a historical reasoning for this placement of the setting which goes along with the characteristics of not only Greek tragedies but characteristics Greek history. There are other locations that are visited in the play, like Corinth, where important events takes place, but the bulk of the play is in Thebes. Oedipus grew up in Corinth with whom he thought to be his biological parents but then he ran away to Thebes to avoid the prophecy in killing his father and marrying his mother in which he only set it in stone. When it comes to characteristics of Greek tragedies, the reason why Thebes is the bulk location of the setting in this play is because unity of place was one of the most importance characteristics in Greek tragedies. This play, after all, is a sickening tragedy, and the setting needs only mirror that, which is where characteristics of Greek history come into play with the setting of the ancient Greek city of Thebes. A plague has fallen over the city and transformed the city into a barren waste land where they stay and it is there where the tragedy reveals itself. Oedipus Rex is an Athenian play, and the plague that falls over Thebes is actually based on a plague that had once fallen over Athens. Why not just place the play in Athens? Greek play writers were actually not allowed to place a play in their home town.
E. Types of conflict
Man v. man: The man v. man conflict arises in the prophecies and some interaction with the characters. In the prophecies, they say that Oedipus will kill his father, and sleep with his mother. Later on in the story, Oedipus fulfills this prophecy by unknowingly killing his father in a conflict with a stranger. Minor conflicts come up with other strangers as well, such as when Oedipus accuses Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against him.
Man v. self: we see the man v. self conflict through the character of Jocasta. As the story gets nearer and nearer to the climax, she begins putting the puzzle pieces together. She knows that all prophecies have been fulfilled. Before she comes to turns with it, she begs Oedipus to stop seeking further information, to just let it be, because she could take no more proof that she had in fact married her own son, but it eventually became too much and she takes her own life because of it.
Man v. society: prophecies are made against the family of Laius, Jocasta and Oedipus, as they try and fight so hard to make sure that they never ever become true, they just prove them to be true and set them in stone.
F. Three Major Themes
1. Fate and decisions
Fate and decisions play a very large rule in this play, because the characters see their fate through prophecies, and then make decisions to make sure that they never are fulfilled but in the end only set them in stone. Ultimately it is the decisions they make to avoid their fate that bring on the fate they so fear.
2. Thirst for Knowledge and its poison
Oedipus seeks knowledge about several things, why there is a plague on the city, who killed Laius, who gave the shepherd the baby, who was that baby, and ultimately, all of these questions lead to his downfall. These questions that his wife, and mother, Jocasta urged him not to ask because she saw what they were leading up to, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle the truth once it was all proven, the knowledge that Oedipus attained was poisonous.
3. Determination
Determination is one of the prime characteristics in both Oedipus and Jocasta, which really makes sense in the end because Jocasta is his mother. Oedipus has determination to seek knowledge and Jocasta has determination to make sure that the prophecies held against her family never come true yet the determination of both characters just seal their fate and the prophecies against them.
G. Symbols
1. Scarred Ankles
Oedipus has scarred ankles because when Jocasta sent him away as a child, the bound his ankles because the plan was to abandon him on a mountainside, and the bounding left scars. Even his name Oedipus translates from Greek into swollen foot. But these scars are symbolic because they mark him for suffering ever since he was just a boy and the highlight his ignorance. Even though he has the evidence of being the son of Laius and Jocasta on his ankles his whole life, he still never knows and when he finds out and doesn’t even believe it. You would think Jocasta would have known.
2. Cross roads
Cross roads are symbolic because they symbolize choices. Oedipus unknowingly killed his father Laius at a place where three roads met. It was a fateful decision made at a crossroads, even if Oedipus just thought he was making the decision to kill a stranger.
3. Eyes, Vision, and Blindness
This is probably the most powerful symbol in the play. While some have vision, they are blind and while some are blind, they can see but sometimes even after you attain sight or vision, you are blind. Oedipus had sight, he could literally see, but he was blind to the facts. Blind to the facts of the prophecy that he unknowingly and unintentionally fulfilled, and blind to help of others, such as the literally blind man who had more sight than Oedipus, Tiresias. He was literally blind, yet he knew the truth, he could see. And then, very, very ironically, after Oedipus saw the truth, after he knew, after he could see, he blinded himself, and he no longer literally had sight, even though he had attained sight of his situation.
H. Photo and Video pertaining to Oedipus Rec by Sophocles (URL’s of the photo and video)
Photo:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSNxUfp0tOyOocoxERhspYyUlGPEaVSQLr6Xhrlj9NpU7eP1b4L9g
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyek9Ddus4
I. MLA Citations
http://www.gradesaver.com/oedipus-rex-or-oedipus-the-king/study-guide/character-list/
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/oedipus-trilogy/character-list.html
http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Oedipus_The_King/Oedipus_Rex02.html
http://summarycentral.tripod.com/oedipusrex.htm
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/oed/CHR.html
http://www.shmoop.com/oedipus-the-king/crossroads-symbol.html
http://www.shmoop.com/oedipus-the-king/scars-on-oedipus-feet-symbol.html
http://www.shmoop.com/oedipus-the-king/themes.html
http://www.litcharts.com/lit/oedipusrex/symbols
http://aplitsota.blogspot.com/
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSNxUfp0tOyOocoxERhspYyUlGPEaVSQLr6Xhrlj9NpU7eP1b4L9g