OEDIPUS REX(OEDIPUS THE KING)ENG 273: World Literature
Greek Theater• Theater was very popular in
Ancient Greek culture
• Drama competitions held at religious festivals (Dionysus)
• Genres:• Tragedy• Comedy• Satire
• Components• Story taken from Greek Mythology• Action takes place outside• Includes chorus
• Comment on the action of the play
Sophocles• Lived c. 497 – c 405 B.C.
• Athenian Playwright
• Plays actually survived• Ajax, Antigone, The Women of
Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus
• Innovative techniques, deep character development,
The Play• Based on well known Greek Myth
• Tragedy
• Told and retold in Oral Tradition
• First performed in 486 B.C.
• Audience would have been very familiar with the story
• Impact on Western literature and culture• Sigmund Freud
• Pyschoanalysis• “Oedipal Complex”
The Plot• Oedipus is King of Thebes
• Became King after solving the Sphinx’s riddle
• Thebes is wracked with plague
• Oedipus sent Creon to the Oracle to find out how to rid the city of the plague
• Answer: Find Lauis’ murderer and punish him (execute or banish)
• Prophesies• Laius would be murdered by his son
• Preventive measure: baby son left on mountain to die
• Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother
• Preventive measure: ran away from his “parents”
• Hidden truth: the prophesies came true
The Audience• From the beginning of the play, the
audience is aware of the knowledge that Oedipus lacks
• He killed his father and married his mother
• Scenes build on the tension between what the audience knows and what Oedipus does not know
• Aristotle• First example of “Literary Criticism” in
“Poetics”• Oedipus the King = perfect tragedy
• Plot: beginning, middle, and end• Catharsis = release of emotion• Perfect “tragic” hero
• Not fully evil• Not fully good• Allows the audience to sympathize with his
plight
Characters: On Stage• Oedipus
• Creon (brother-in-law)
• Tieresias (blind prophet)
• Jocasta (wife/mother)
• Antigone and Ismene (daughters)
• Chorus
• Leader
• Messenger
• Shepherd
Characters: Off Stage• Laius (deceased father)
• King and Queen of Corinth
Characters: Divine• Apollo (Phoebus)
• The Sphinx
• The Oracle
Key Themes• Search for Truth
• Knowledge versus Ignorance• Blindness versus Sight
• Power of Prophesy• Fate/Destiny versus Free Will• Relationship of gods to humans
• Flawed Hero• Pride• Arrogance