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Analysis of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 27, 2020 • ( 0 )

The place of the Oedipus Tyrannus in literature is something like that of the Mona Lisa in art. Everyone knows the story, the first detective story of Western literature; everyone who has read or seen it is drawn into its enigmas and moral dilemmas. It presents a kind of nightmare vision of a world suddenly turned upside down: a decent man discovers that he has unknowingly killed his father, married his mother, and sired children by her. It is a story that, as Aristotle says in the Poetics , makes one shudder with horror and feel pity just on hearing it. In Sophocles’ hands, however, this ancient tale becomes a profound meditation on the questions of guilt and responsibility, the order (or disorder) of our world, and the nature of man. The play stands with the Book of Job, Hamlet, and King Lear as one of Western literature’s most searching examinations of the problem of suffering.

—Charles Segal, Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge

No other drama has exerted a longer or stronger hold on the imagination than Sophocles’ Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus Rex ). Tragic drama that is centered on the dilemma of a single central character largely begins with Sophocles and is exemplified by his Oedipus, arguably the most influential play ever written. The most famous of all Greek dramas, Sophocles’ play, supported by Aristotle in the Poetics, set the standard by which tragedy has been measured for nearly two-and-a-half millennia. For Aristotle, Sophocles’ play featured the ideal tragic hero in Oedipus, a man of “great repute and good fortune,” whose fall, coming from his horrifying discovery that he has killed his father and married his mother, is masterfully arranged to elicit tragedy’s proper cathartic mixture of pity and terror. The play’s relentless exploration of human nature, destiny, and suffering turns an ancient tale of a man’s shocking history into one of the core human myths. Oedipus thereby joins a select group of fictional characters, including Odysseus, Faust, Don Juan, and Don Quixote, that have entered our collective consciousness as paradigms of humanity and the human condition. As classical scholar Bernard Knox has argued, “Sophocles’ Oedipus is not only the greatest creation of a major poet and the classic representative figure of his age: he is also one of a long series of tragic protagonists who stand as symbols of human aspiration and despair before the characteristic dilemma of Western civilization—the problem of man’s true stature, his proper place in the universe.”

For nearly 2,500 years Sophocles’ play has claimed consideration as drama’s most perfect and most profound achievement. Julius Caesar wrote an adaptation; Nero allegedly acted the part of the blind Oedipus. First staged in a European theater in 1585, Oedipus has been continually performed ever since and reworked by such dramatists as Pierre Corneille, John Dryden, Voltaire, William Butler Yeats, André Gide, and Jean Cocteau. The French neoclassical tragedian Jean Racine asserted that Oedipus was the ideal tragedy, while D. H. Lawrence regarded it as “the finest drama of all time.” Sigmund Freud discovered in the play the key to understanding man’s deepest and most repressed sexual and aggressive impulses, and the so-called Oedipus complex became one of the founding myths of psychoanalysis. Oedipus has served as a crucial mirror by which each subsequent era has been able to see its own reflection and its understanding of the mystery of human existence.

If Aeschylus is most often seen as the great originator of ancient Greek tragedy and Euripides is viewed as the great outsider and iconoclast, it is Sophocles who occupies the central position as classical tragedy’s technical master and the age’s representative figure over a lifetime that coincided with the rise and fall of Athens’s greatness as a political and cultural power in the fifth century b.c. Sophocles was born in 496 near Athens in Colonus, the legendary final resting place of the exiled Oedipus. At the age of 16, Sophocles, an accomplished dancer and lyre player, was selected to lead the celebration of the victory over the Persians at the battle of Salamis, the event that ushered in Athens’s golden age. He died in 406, two years before Athens’s fall to Sparta, which ended nearly a century of Athenian supremacy and cultural achievement. Very much at the center of Athenian public life, Sophocles served as a treasurer of state and a diplomat and was twice elected as a general. A lay priest in the cult of a local deity, Sophocles also founded a literary association and was an intimate of such prominent men of letters as Ion of Chios, Herodotus, and Archelaus. Urbane, garrulous, and witty, Sophocles was remembered fondly by his contemporaries as possessing all the admired qualities of balance and tranquillity. Nicknamed “the Bee” for his “honeyed” style of fl owing eloquence—the highest compliment the Greeks could bestow on a poet or speaker—Sophocles was regarded as the tragic Homer.

In marked contrast to his secure and stable public role and private life, Sophocles’ plays orchestrate a disturbing challenge to assurance and certainty by pitting vulnerable and fallible humanity against the inexorable forces of nature and destiny. Sophocles began his career as a playwright in 468 b.c. with a first-prize victory over Aeschylus in the Great, or City, Dionysia, the annual Athenian drama competition. Over the next 60 years he produced more than 120 plays (only seven have survived intact), winning first prize at the Dionysia 24 times and never earning less than second place, making him unquestionably the most successful and popular playwright of his time. It is Sophocles who introduced the third speaking actor to classical drama, creating the more complex dramatic situations and deepened psychological penetration through interpersonal relationships and dialogue. “Sophocles turned tragedy inward upon the principal actors,” classicist Richard Lattimore has observed, “and drama becomes drama of character.” Favoring dramatic action over narration, Sophocles brought offstage action onto the stage, emphasized dialogue rather than lengthy, undramatic monologues, and purportedly introduced painted scenery. Also of note, Sophocles replaced the connected trilogies of Aeschylus with self-contained plays on different subjects at the same contest, establishing the norm that has continued in Western drama with its emphasis on the intensity and unity of dramatic action. At their core, Sophocles’ tragedies are essentially moral and religious dramas pitting the tragic hero against unalterable fate as defined by universal laws, particular circumstances, and individual temperament. By testing his characters so severely, Sophocles orchestrated adversity into revelations that continue to evoke an audience’s capacity for wonder and compassion.

The story of Oedipus was part of a Theban cycle of legends that was second only to the stories surrounding the Trojan War as a popular subject for Greek literary treatment. Thirteen different Greek dramatists, including Aeschylus and Euripides, are known to have written plays on the subject of Oedipus and his progeny. Sophocles’ great innovation was to turn Oedipus’s horrifying circumstances into a drama of self-discovery that probes the mystery of selfhood and human destiny.

The play opens with Oedipus secure and respected as the capable ruler of Thebes having solved the riddle of the Sphinx and gained the throne and Thebes’s widowed queen, Jocasta, as his reward. Plague now besets the city, and Oedipus comes to Thebes’s rescue once again when, after learning from the oracle of Apollo that the plague is a punishment for the murder of his predecessor, Laius, he swears to discover and bring the murderer to justice. The play, therefore, begins as a detective story, with the key question “Who killed Laius?” as the initial mystery. Oedipus initiates the first in a seemingly inexhaustible series of dramatic ironies as the detective who turns out to be his own quarry. Oedipus’s judgment of banishment for Laius’s murderer seals his own fate. Pledged to restore Thebes to health, Oedipus is in fact the source of its affliction. Oedipus’s success in discovering Laius’s murderer will be his own undoing, and the seemingly percipient, riddle-solving Oedipus will only see the truth about himself when he is blind. To underscore this point, the blind seer Teiresias is summoned. He is reluctant to tell what he knows, but Oedipus is adamant: “No man, no place, nothing will escape my gaze. / I will not stop until I know it all.” Finally goaded by Oedipus to reveal that Oedipus himself is “the killer you’re searching for” and the plague that afflicts Thebes, Teiresias introduces the play’s second mystery, “Who is Oedipus?”

You have eyes to see with, But you do not see yourself, you do not see The horror shadowing every step of your life, . . . Who are your father and mother? Can you tell me?

Oedipus rejects Teiresias’s horrifying answer to this question—that Oedipus has killed his own father and has become a “sower of seed where your father has sowed”—as part of a conspiracy with Jocasta’s brother Creon against his rule. In his treatment of Teiresias and his subsequent condemning of Creon to death, Oedipus exposes his pride, wrath, and rush to judgment, character flaws that alloy his evident strengths of relentless determination to learn the truth and fortitude in bearing the consequences. Jocasta comes to her brother’s defense, while arguing that not all oracles can be believed. By relating the circumstances of Laius’s death, Jocasta attempts to demonstrate that Oedipus could not be the murderer while ironically providing Oedipus with the details that help to prove the case of his culpability. In what is a marvel of ironic plot construction, each step forward in answering the questions surrounding the murder and Oedipus’s parentage takes Oedipus a step back in time toward full disclosure and self-discovery.

As Oedipus is made to shift from self-righteous authority to doubt, a messenger from Corinth arrives with news that Oedipus’s supposed father, Poly-bus, is dead. This intelligence seems again to disprove the oracle that Oedipus is fated to kill his father. Oedipus, however, still is reluctant to return home for fear that he could still marry his mother. To relieve Oedipus’s anxiety, the messenger reveals that he himself brought Oedipus as an infant to Polybus. Like Jocasta whose evidence in support of Oedipus’s innocence turns into confirmation of his guilt, the messenger provides intelligence that will connect Oedipus to both Laius and Jocasta as their son and as his father’s killer. The messenger’s intelligence produces the crucial recognition for Jocasta, who urges Oedipus to cease any further inquiry. Oedipus, however, persists, summoning the herdsman who gave the infant to the messenger and was coincidentally the sole survivor of the attack on Laius. The herdsman’s eventual confirmation of both the facts of Oedipus’s birth and Laius’s murder produces the play’s staggering climax. Aristotle would cite Sophocles’ simultaneous con-junction of Oedipus’s recognition of his identity and guilt with his reversal of fortune—condemned by his own words to banishment and exile as Laius’s murderer—as the ideal artful arrangement of a drama’s plot to produce the desired cathartic pity and terror.

The play concludes with an emphasis on what Oedipus will now do after he knows the truth. No tragic hero has fallen further or faster than in the real time of Sophocles’ drama in which the time elapsed in the play coincides with the performance time. Oedipus is stripped of every illusion of his authority, control, righteousness, and past wisdom and is forced to contend with a shame that is impossible to expiate—patricide and incestual relations with his mother—in a world lacking either justice or alleviation from suffering. Oedipus’s heroic grandeur, however, grows in his diminishment. Fundamentally a victim of circumstances, innocent of intentional sin whose fate was preordained before his birth, Oedipus refuses the consolation of blamelessness that victimization confers, accepting in full his guilt and self-imposed sentence as an outcast, criminal, and sinner. He blinds himself to confirm the moral shame that his actions, unwittingly or not, have provoked. It is Oedipus’s capacity to endure the revelation of his sin, his nature, and his fate that dominates the play’s conclusion. Oedipus’s greatest strengths—his determination to know the truth and to accept what he learns—sets him apart as one of the most pitiable and admired of tragic heroes. “The closing note of the tragedy,” Knox argues, “is a renewed insistence on the heroic nature of Oedipus; the play ends as it began, with the greatness of the hero. But it is a different kind of greatness. It is now based on knowledge, not, as before on ignorance.” The now-blinded Oedipus has been forced to see and experience the impermanence of good fortune, the reality of unimaginable moral shame, and a cosmic order that is either perverse in its calculated cruelty or chaotically random in its designs, in either case defeating any human need for justice and mercy.

The Chorus summarizes the harsh lesson of heroic defeat that the play so majestically dramatizes:

Look and learn all citizens of Thebes. This is Oedipus. He, who read the famous riddle, and we hailed chief of men, All envied his power, glory, and good fortune. Now upon his head the sea of disaster crashes down. Mortality is man’s burden. Keep your eyes fixed on your last day. Call no man happy until he reaches it, and finds rest from suffering.

Few plays have dealt so unflinchingly with existential truths or have as bravely defined human heroism in the capacity to see, suffer, and endure.

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Oedipus Rex

Introduction.

Oedipus Rex is a famous tragedy written by Sophocles. It is also known by its Greek name “Oedipus Tyrannus” or “Oedipus the king”. It was first performed in 429 BC. Sophocles is now placed among the great ancient Greek Tragedians. He wrote three famous tragedies that include Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone that describe the sufferings of a king and his children after him.

Definition of a tragedy

Oedipus rex summary.

The play starts outside the palace of King Oedipus. The city of Thebes is shown suffering a plague because of which people are terrified. The fields become barren and people start suffering from different diseases. The people of Thebes gather along with a priest and other elders to request Oedipus, the king of Thebes, to help them and save them from this plague.  They come to the king to ask for help because he saved them once from the sphinx too. The sphinx was a monster with the woman’s head, lioness’ body, eagle’s wings and serpent’s tale.

Oedipus appreciates the chorus for their prayers. Oedipus then addresses to all the people and forbids them to give shelter to the murderer of king Laius. He also announces that if the murderer is present in the crowd, he can come forward and admit his crime. However, he promises not to kill the person if he comes forward to surrender and he only suggests banishment for him. The chorus suggests Oedipus to call Teiresias, the blind prophet, to resolve this matter. Oedipus tells them that he has already sent someone to call him.

Jocasta and Oedipus feel relief on this news. Jocasta becomes happy and tells Oedipus that this is another proof that proves the prophecies wrong. Oedipus believes her but he tells her that he is still worried about the other prophecy that he will marry his mother. The messenger tells Oedipus that now he doesn’t need to stay away from his home, Corinth. He tells him that he can come back any time without any fear because his mother, Merope, is not his real mother and Polybus was not his real father either.

Finally, Oedipus’ men come with a shepherd. Seeing the terrible condition of Jocasta, the chorus also starts thinking that something bad is going to happen so they also start begging Oedipus to leave the mystery unsolved but Oedipus doesn’t listen to them either. The shepherd looks terrified and doesn’t want to answer the king’s question. Oedipus forces him to tell the truth. He tells Oedipus it is true that he gave a baby boy to another shepherd. He admits that the baby was king Laius’ son whom Jocasta and Laius left to die on a hillside because they were terrified of an oracle’s prophecy.

Creon also enters the palace after hearing the whole story. He consoles Oedipus and asks him to come inside so that no one can see him. Oedipus also begs Creon to let him leave the city but he suggests meeting Apollo first. Oedipus refuses to meet anyone. Oedipus says that the only punishment for the sinner is banishment.  He requests Creon to bring his daughters to him as he wants to meet them before leaving. He also asks Creon to take care of them. 

Themes in Oedipus Rex

It is the main theme of this play and fate plays an important role in the whole play.  When king Laius and queen Jocasta hear the prophecy that their son will kill his father and marry his mother, they leave their son to die but the child doesn’t die and is taken to Corinth. When Oedipus grows up, he also comes to know about this prophecy so he leaves that place but he doesn’t know that his fate is taking him towards his real parents. No matter how hard he tries to escape his fate, he does the same as was written. The role of fate remains prominent in the play and in the end, Oedipus finds that he is only a puppet in the hands of gods and prophets.

Individual will/action

Pity and fear, plague and health, self-discovery and memories of the past, search for truth.

Oedipus promises people to find out the truth and punish the culprit so he starts his search. Many people request him to stop his search but he doesn’t listen to them. Teiresias begs him not to ask him about the truth because it will only bring pain to everyone. He forces him to speak. Later when things start to become clear, Jocasta also requests Oedipus to stop finding the truth but he doesn’t listen to her either. Then he finds out the bitter truth and ends up punishing himself. 

Guilt and Shame

Blind faith, oedipus rex characters analysis.

Creon remains a loyal friend to Oedipus. He even forgives him when he accuses him of treason and gives the order to execute him.  He claims that he never thought of turning against Oedipus. In every decision about the city of Thebes, he shares an equal part as Oedipus and Jocasta. At the end of the play, when Oedipus requests him to let him leave the city, he tells him that they should go to the oracle first but Oedipus doesn’t agree. Creon brings the daughters of Oedipus to meet their father for the last time according to his will and he also promises Oedipus to take care of them after him. Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes after king Oedipus. 

Teiresias then leaves the palace saying his last riddle. He tells that the murderer is in front of them, he is the killer of his father and the husband of his mother, he is the brother of his own children and the son of his own wife, a man who came seeing but will leave this world in blindness. His prophecy proves to be true at the end of the novel when the truth gets revealed in front of everyone and Oedipus blinds himself. 

A chorus is a group of singers that includes the elder citizens of Thebes. As the play starts, they come to Oedipus along with a priest to request the king to save their city from the plague. They become satisfied as the king assures them that he will save them from the trouble. The chorus plays an important role in the play. They sing choral odes after every scene that helps to connect different scenes of the play. Moreover, their choral odes add to the beauty of the play and entertain the readers. 

The chorus also prays to different gods to save their city from the plague. They forbid the king to take any strict decision against Creon and stop him from executing Creon. When the truth starts revealing, they also try to stop the king to stop his search for truth because they also start feeling that something wrong is going to happen. In the end, they lament on the king’s fate and the play ends when the Chorus says, “Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last”.

Antigone and Ismene

The messenger from corinth.

Oedipus gets shocked on hearing this news and asks him who told him about this. He tells Oedipus that years ago someone from Thebes gave him a child as a gift and he presented it to the king and queen of Corinth as they had no children of their own. Oedipus further asks him about the person who gave him the child. He tells Oedipus that he was one of Laius’ servants. He also helped Oedipus in recognizing the servant. 

The Herdsman

The herdsman is the person who gave the child of king Laius and queen Jocasta to the messenger of Corinth on their orders. He is also the witness of king Laius’ death. Initially, he lied to everyone that king Laius was murdered by some robbers but later when king Oedipus calls him in his palace and forces him to speak the truth, he tells that he witnessed the killer of King Laius and he is Oedipus. 

The Second Messenger

Oedipus rex literary analysis.

“Oedipus Rex” is a classical work in which Sophocles has skillfully shown a straightforward interpretation of a Greek myth. Throughout the play, the use of dramatic irony makes this play a great success and masterpiece. The play discusses how fate plays its part in the life of the characters. The main character tries hard to escape his fate but in his effort to run away from it, he actually comes nearer to what gods have decided for him and ends up doing what already was prophecized.

Title of the play

Setting of the play, ending of the play.

He leaves the city as he himself announced banishment as a punishment for the criminal. Now he wins the hearts of people again and becomes the real hero at the end. Creon treats him gently forgetting about what he did to him and takes the charge of Thebes afterwards.

Writing style

Plot analysis, initial situation  , conflict   , complication.

Oedipus starts realizing that he has some link with the murder of Laius. The more he learns about the truth, the more he shows interest to solve this mystery. As he comes close to the truth, he hurts no one but himself in the entire process.

The three unities in Oedipus Rex

Unity of action, unity of place.

“Oedipus Rex” also follows the unity of action as the whole play occurs at a single place. The play is restricted to a single location that is in front of the king’s palace in the city of Thebes.

Unity of Time

Three act plot analysis.

Oedipus knows that the city is cursed so he sends Creon to an oracle to find out the solution. Creon tells that the only solution to lift the plague is to find the murderer of King Laius and punish him. Oedipus promises people to find the culprit and save them from trouble.

Oedipus investigates Jocasta, Teiresias, the messenger and the shepherd to know about King Laius’ murderer. Slowly he starts solving the mystery.

Analysis of the Literary Devices used in Oedipus Rex

Dramatic irony.

One example of the dramatic irony is that throughout the play Oedipus struggles to find the murderer of King Laius but in reality, he himself murdered his father and then he searches for the murderer here and there. The irony here is that he searches for himself. 

The scars on Oedipus’ feet

When Oedipus was three days old, an oracle told his father, King Laius, that the child will kill his father in the future and then he will marry his mother.  King Laius bound his feet by a pin due to which they got swollen and later some scars were left on them. The scars on his feet are symbolic. They symbolize that Oedipus was marked for all the sufferings right from the time of his birth. These scars are also ironic. Although the name of Oedipus clearly points towards his feet, still he fails to discover his true identity. 

The Crossroads

Oedipus killed a stranger at a place where three roads met. Unknowingly he killed his father. Sophocles made the point of murder unique. Oedipus’ fate followed him. The three roads actually symbolize the choices that a person has while making any decision. In the play, the three roads symbolize the choice or the path that Oedipus could have taken instead of killing a man just because of his short temperament. The three roads also symbolize the present, past and future. It is said that the Greek Goddess of the crossroads had 3 heads. One head could see the past, one the present and one the future.  

Eyes, Vision and Blindness

More from sophocles.

A Summary and Analysis of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The plot of Sophocles’ great tragedy Oedipus the King (sometimes known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannos ) has long been admired. In his Poetics , Aristotle held it up as the exemplary Greek tragedy . Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it one of the three perfect plots in all of literature (the other two being Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones ).

Oedipus the King might also be called the first detective story in Western literature. Yet how well do we know Sophocles’ play? And what does a closer analysis of its plot features and themes reveal?

The city of Thebes is in the grip of a terrible plague. The city’s king, Oedipus, sends Creon to consult the Delphic oracle, who announces that if the city rids itself of a murderer, the plague will disappear. The murderer in question is the unknown killer of the city’s previous king, Laius. Oedipus adopts a sort of detective role, and endeavours to sniff out the murderer.

He himself is plagued by another prophecy: that he would one day kill his father and marry his mother. He thinks he’s managed to thwart the prophecy by leaving home – and his parents – back in Corinth. On his way from Corinth to Thebes, he had an altercation with a man on the road: neither party would back down to let the other past, and Oedipus ended up killing the man in perhaps Western literature’s first instance of road rage.

Then Oedipus learns that his ‘father’ back in Corinth was not his biological parent: he was adopted after his ‘real’ parents left him for dead on a hillside, and he was rescued by a kindly shepherd who rescued him, took the child in, and raised him as his own. (The name Oedipus is Greek for ‘swollen foot’, from the chains put through the infant’s feet when it was left on the mountain.)

Tiresias the seer then reveals that the man Oedipus killed on the road was Laius – the former king of Thebes and (shock horror! Twist!) Oedipus’ biological father. Laius’ widow, Jocasta, is Oedipus’ own mother – and the woman Oedipus had married upon his arrival in Thebes.

When this terrible truth is revealed, Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus puts out his own eyes and leaves Thebes, going into self-imposed exile so he can free the Thebans from the plague.

This much constitutes a brief recap or summary of the plot of Oedipus the King . How we should interpret and analyse its use of prophecy and Oedipus’ own culpability, however, remains a less clear-cut matter. Is Oedipus to blame for what happens to him? Or is he simply a pawn of the gods and fates, to be used according to their whim?

Eventually, the nemesis can take no more and raises an army against Winter Kay. One of his soldiers, bearing a golden badge that resembles an eye in shape, is the one who kills Winter Kay in battle. In his dying moments, the hapless villain realises that, in seeking to avert the prophecy, he had, in fact, helped it to come true.

This is similar to the story of Oedipus the King . Oedipus heard the prophecy that he would one day murder his father and marry his mother, and so fled from his presumed parents so as to avoid fulfilling the prophecy. Such an act seems noble and it was jolly bad luck that fate had decreed that Oedipus would turn out to be a foundling and his real parents were still out there for him to bump into.

But what is clever about Sophocles’ dramatising of the myth is the way he introduces little details which reveal Oedipus’ character. The clues were already there that Oedipus was actually adopted: when he received the prophecy from the oracle, a drunk told him as much. But because the man was drunk, Oedipus didn’t believe him.

But, as the Latin phrase has it, in vino veritas . Then, it is Oedipus’ hubris, his pride, that contributes to the altercation on the road between him and Laius, the man who turns out to be his real father: if Oedipus was less stubborn, he would have played the bigger man and stepped aside to let Laius pass.

What does all this mean, when we stop and analyse it in terms of the interplay between fate and personal actions in Oedipus the King ? It means that Sophocles was aware of something which governs all our lives. Call it ‘karma’ if you will, or fate, but it works even if we remove the supernatural framework into which the action of Oedipus the King is placed.

Our actions have consequences, but that doesn’t mean that a particular action will lead to a particular consequence: it means that one action might cause something quite different to happen, which will nevertheless be linked in some way to our lives. A thief steals your wallet and you never see him, or your wallet, again. Did the criminal get away with it? Maybe.

Or maybe his habit of taking an intrusive interest in other people’s wallets will lead him, somewhere down the line, to getting what the ancient Greeks didn’t call ‘his comeuppance’. He wasn’t punished for pilfering your possessions, but he will nevertheless receive his just deserts.

Oedipus kills Laius because he is a stubborn and angry man; in his anger and pride, he allows himself to forget the prophecy (or to believe himself safe if he kills this man who definitely isn’t his father, no way ), and to kill another man. That one event will set in motion a chain of events that will see him married to his mother, the city over which he rules in the grip of plague, and – ultimately – Oedipus blinded and his wife/mother hanged.

Or perhaps that’s to impose a modern reading onto a classical text which Sophocles himself would not recognise. Yet works of art are always opening themselves up to new readings which see them reflecting our changing and evolving moral beliefs, and that is perhaps why Oedipus the King remains a great play to read, watch, analyse, and discuss. There remains something unsettling about its plot structure and its ambiguous meaning, and that is what lends it its power.

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7 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King”

Reblogged this on Writing hints and competitions and commented: Insight, the fate that launched a thousand clips

Wonderful analysis. Thank you. ~~dru~~

Thank you :)

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Oedipus the King – Sophocles – Oedipus Rex Analysis, Summary, Story

(tragedy, greek, c. 429 bce, 1,530 lines).

Introduction | Synopsis | Analysis | Resources

“ Oedipus the King ” (Gr: “ Oidipous Tyrannos ” ; Lat: “ Oedipus Rex ” ) is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles , first performed in about 429 BCE . It was the second of Sophocles ‘ three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology (followed by “Oedipus at Colonus” and then “Antigone” ).

It follows the story of King Oedipus of Thebes as he discovers that he has unwittingly killed his own father, Laius, and married his own mother, Jocasta . Over the centuries, it has come to be regarded by many as the Greek tragedy par excellence and certainly as the summit of Sophocles ’ achievements.

To briefly recap on the background to the play: Shortly after Oedipus ’ birth , his father, King Laius of Thebes, learned from an oracle that he, Laius, was doomed to perish by the hand of his own son , and so ordered his wife Jocasta to kill the infant. However, neither she nor her servant could bring themselves to kill him and he was abandoned to elements . There he was found and brought up by a shepherd, before being taken in and raised in the court of the childless King Polybus of Corinth as if he were his own son. Stung by rumours that he was not the biological son of the king, Oedipus consulted an oracle which foretold that he would marry his own mother and kill his own father. Desperate to avoid this foretold fate, and believing Polybus and Merope to be his true parents, Oedipus left Corinth . On the road to Thebes, he met Laius, his real father, and, unaware of each other’s true identities, they quarrelled and Oedipus ‘ pride led him to murder Laius, fulfilling part of the oracle’s prophecy. Later, he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and his reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx’s curse was the hand of Queen Jocasta (actually his biological mother) and the crown of the city of Thebes. The prophecy was thus fulfilled , although none of the main characters were aware of it at this point. As the play opens , a priest and the Chorus of Theban elders are calling on King Oedipus to aid them with the plague which has been sent by Apollo to ravage the city. Oedipus has already sent Creon , his brother-in-law, to consult the oracle at Delphi on the matter, and when Creon returns at that very moment, he reports that the plague will only end when the murderer of their former king, Laius, is caught and brought to justice. Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused. Oedipus also summons the blind prophet Tiresias , who claims to know the answers to Oedipus ‘ questions, but refuses to speak, lamenting his ability to see the truth when the truth brings nothing but pain. He advises Oedipus to abandon his search but, when the enraged Oedipus accuses Tiresias of complicity in the murder, Tiresias is provoked into telling the king the truth, that he himself is the murderer. Oedipus dismisses this as nonsense, accusing the prophet of being corrupted by the ambitious Creon in an attempt to undermine him, and Tiresias leaves, putting forth one last riddle: that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife. Oedipus demands that Creon be executed, convinced that he is conspiring against him, and only the intervention of the Chorus persuades him to let Creon live. Oedipus ‘ wife Jocasta tells him he should take no notice of prophets and oracles anyway because, many years ago, she and Laius received an oracle which never came true. This prophecy said that Laius would be killed by his own son but, as everyone knows, Laius was actually killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi. The mention of crossroads causes Oedipus to give pause and he suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias ‘ accusations may actually have been true. The messenger turns out to be the very shepherd who had looked after an abandoned child, which he later took to Corinth and gave up to King Polybus for adoption. He is also the very same shepherd who witnessed the murder of Laius. By now, Jocasta is beginning to realize the truth, and desperately begs Oedipus to stop asking questions. But Oedipus presses the shepherd, threatening him with torture or execution, until it finally emerges that the child he gave away was Laius’ own son , and that Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be exposed upon the mountainside, in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had never come true: that the child would kill its father. With all now finally revealed , Oedipus curses himself and his tragic destiny and stumbles off, as the Chorus laments how even a great man can be felled by fate. A servant enters and explains that Jocasta , when she had begun to suspect the truth, had ran to the palace bedroom and hanged herself there. Oedipus enters, deliriously calling for a sword so that he might kill himself and raging through the house until he comes upon Jocasta ‘s body. In final despair, Oedipus takes two long gold pins from her dress, and plunges them into his own eyes. Now blind, Oedipus begs to be exiled as soon as possible , and asks Creon to look after his two daughters, Antigone and Ismene , lamenting that they should have been born into such a cursed family. Creon counsels that Oedipus should be kept in the palace until oracles can be consulted regarding what is best to be done, and the play ends as the Chorus wails : ‘Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last’ . The play follows one chapter (the most dramatic one) in the life of Oedipus , King of Thebes , who lived about a generation before the events of the Trojan War, namely his gradual realization that he has killed his own father, Laius, and committed incest with his own mother, Jocasta . It assumes a certain amount of background knowledge of his story, which Greek audiences would have known well, although much of the background is also explained as the action unfolds. “Oedipus the King” is structured as a prologue and five episodes , each introduced by a choral ode . Each of the incidents in the play is part of a tightly constructed cause-and-effect chain, assembled together as an investigation of the past, and the play is considered a marvel of plot structure. Part of the tremendous sense of inevitability and fate in the play stems from the fact that all the irrational things have already occurred and are therefore unalterable. The main themes of the play are: fate and free will (the inevitability of oracular predictions is a theme that often occurs in Greek tragedies); the conflict between the individual and the state (similar to that in Sophocles ’ “Antigone” ); people’s willingness to ignore painful truths (both Oedipus and Jocasta clutch at unlikely details in order to avoiding facing up to the inceasingly apparent truth); and sight and blindness (the irony that the blind seer Tiresius can actually “see” more clearly than the supposedly clear-eyed Oedipus , who is in reality blind to the truth about his origins and his inadvertent crimes). Sophocles makes good use of dramatic irony in “Oedipus the King” . For example: the people of Thebes come to Oedipus at the start of the play, asking him to rid the city of the plague, when in reality, it is he who is the cause; Oedipus curses the murderer of Laius out of a deep anger at not being able to find him, actually cursing himself in he process; he insults Tiresius ’ blindness when he is the one who actually lacks vision, and will soon himself be blind; and he rejoices in the news of the death of King Polybus of Corinth, when this new information is what actually brings the tragic prophecy to light. English translation by F. Storr (Internet Classics Archive): http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html Greek version with word-by-word translation (Perseus Project): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0191 [rating_form id=”1″] Oedipus Rex 38 pages • 1 hour read A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. Chapter Summaries & Analyses Pages 160-198 Pages 199-251 Character Analysis Symbols & Motifs Important Quotes Essay Topics Discussion Questions Summary and Study Guide Sophocles’s play Oedipus Rex, first performed in the early-to-mid 400s BCE, is one of the most famous and influential tragedies left to us from the ancient Greek tradition. Based on the myth of Oedipus , whose cursed fate was to marry his mother and kill his father, the play explores themes of destiny, free will, and literal and metaphoric vision and blindness. This guide uses the 1984 Penguin edition of The Three Theban Plays , translated by Robert Fagles. Please note that the text of Oedipus Rex begins on page 160 of this edition. Plot Summary The great city of Thebes is in trouble. A plague has descended, and nothing—from grain in the fields to babies in the womb—will grow. The citizens make a wailing procession to the palace of their king, Oedipus, who rose to power after the unsolved murder of the former king, Laius. Oedipus consoles his people: He has sent to Apollo’s oracle at Delphi to ask what they can do about their suffering. The answer returns via his brother-in-law Creon: Laius’s murderer is somewhere in their midst, so they must drive him out. Oedipus rains curses on the head of the unknown murderer, and vows to find him. He summons the blind prophet Tiresias , who speaks for Apollo. Tiresias at first refuses to talk, but, when Oedipus accuses him of the murder, he rounds on the king and tells him that Oedipus himself is the murderer. Paranoid that Tiresias is the pawn of Creon , Oedipus storms off in a rage before he can hear the kicker: Laius was his actual father, so in marrying Laius’s widow Jocasta , Oedipus has married his own mother. Creon confronts Oedipus, angry that Oedipus believes Creon is guilty of plotting against him. The two men squabble until Jocasta separates them. When she hears what’s wrong, she assures Oedipus that prophecies are meaningless. She and Laius themselves once received a prophecy that their son would kill Laius and marry Jocasta, so they drove a stake through their baby’s ankles and left him to die, and voila! No prophecy! But Oedipus seems taken aback by this information. He gets even more nervous when a messenger arrives to tell him about the death of Polybus—Oedipus has always believed Polybus was his father, but now it turns out that Polybus was not related to Oedipus by blood. Through questioning a series of messengers and eyewitnesses, Oedipus slowly unearths the terrible truth: He is Laius’s and Jocasta’s abandoned son, and he has fulfilled the prophecy point by point. Jocasta, in despair, hangs herself. Lamenting over her body, Oedipus takes the pins from her dress and pokes out his own eyes. The blinded Oedipus presents himself to his horrified people. Creon takes charge of the kingdom and asks the gods what should become of Oedipus. Oedipus makes (and is granted) one final request: to embrace his little daughters before he meets the next chapter of his fate.  Related Titles By Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus Philoctetes Women of Trachis Featured Collections Ancient Greece View Collection Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics Popular Study Guides Religion & Spirituality Tragic Plays Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King By sophocles, oedipus rex or oedipus the king study guide. The Oedipus myth goes back as far as Homer and beyond, with sources varying about plot details. The play that Sophocles presents is merely the end of a dramatically long story, and some plot background must be provided to make the story understandable for modern audiences (please see the section on ‘Oedipus and Myth’ for this full backstory). The real myth begins a few generations before Oedipus was born. The city of Thebes was founded by a man named Cadmus, who slew a dragon and was instructed to sow the dragon's teeth in order to give birth to a city. From these teeth sprang a race of giants who were fully armed and angry; they fought each other until only five were left, and these five became the fathers of Thebes. Ancient Greek audiences would already know the background, and in fact the entirety, of the Oedipus story. Therefore what makes this particular play so great is its ability to present this material in an evocative and powerful manner, in order to nullify the reality that most of the audience already knew its contents. Modern audiences might recognize the name Oedipus from Sigmund Freud's famous "Oedipus Complex" - particularly his theory that young boys lust after their mothers and see their fathers as competition for their mothers' favors. This theory springs from Jocasta 's comment that killing your father and marrying your mother are the kinds of things men often dream of (981). Freud's theory has been hotly debated and, indeed, is currently dismissed by most classical scholars – though the fact that the issue remains the subject of much psychological debate is proof that the Oedipus story continues to be powerful even thousands of years after the advent of Sophocles' play. Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Questions and Answers The Question and Answer section for Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. What does Oedipus seem to believe about his ability to control his own destiny? It is important to remember that, even at this first stage of the play, Oedipus’ pride does not bring about any of the events that cause the plague. The murder of Laius, after all, happened many years ago, and he already has four children fathered... Character analysis please? Oedipus is the king of Thebes, married to Jocasta. He is unaware, at the start of the play, that he has murdered his father and slept with his mother. Soon he learns that it was he that put his kingdom at such terrible risk, and blinds himself... Oedipus the King Jocasta is both Oedipus' wife and mother, though, she is unaware that she has married her son. When she learns that her son was not killed, and was in fact her husband, Jocasta takes her own life. Study Guide for Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) study guide contains a biography of Sophocles, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. About Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Summary Character List Essays for Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) by Sophocles. Hubris in Antigone and Oedipus Hubris in Greek Mythology Anagnoresis Poetics and the Great Greek Tragedy: Oedipus Rex The Vision of Blindness: Sight Versus Insight in Sophocles' Oedipus the King Lesson Plan for Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King About the Author Study Objectives Common Core Standards Introduction to Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Relationship to Other Books Bringing in Technology Notes to the Teacher Related Links Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Bibliography E-Text of Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) e-text contains the full text of Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) by Sophocles. Wikipedia Entries for Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Introduction Critical Analysis of Oedipus Rex To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block As a source of information (ensure proper referencing) As a template for you assignment Introduction The life of sophocles, greek theater at the time of sophocles, oedipus rex adaptations, oedipus rex perception, oedipus rex tone. Sophocles lived during a time when the Greek society excelled in theatre and drama. Art was a main attraction in the Greek society as was politics. The advancement of art in the Greek cities cannot be compared to any in the other civilizations that existed at the time. Sophocles lived in the same period with other playwrights such as Euripides and Aristophanes. Sophocles wrote over 200 plays, but of these only about five are still existent. Apart from Oedipus, other famous plays attributed to Sophocles artistic genius are Antigone and Elektra. Most of Sophocles’ plays emphasize the tragedies of life and the pain inherent in the dynamics of human existence (MacCollom 231). However; Sophocles did not live long enough to see the decline of Greek literature to which he had greatly contributed. Years after his death, the Greek city states were embroiled in conflicts that ultimately led to their fall and the decline of the arts (Leefmans 12). Greek theater at the time of Sophocles was markedly different from today. It was a religious occasion, a dramatic departure from today’s performances which are pastimes and occasions for entertainment. To attend the theatre was a way of worshipping and revering the Greek gods who were highly revered in the Greek society. Dionysius was the Greek deity who took centre stage during these theatre festivals. This particular deity was said to live in the bush. The theater festivals were punctuated by much celebration and other excesses. Theater also celebrated culture. Theaters would be filled to maximum capacity and the plays were performed during the spring period. The plays were marked by their beautiful language, punctuated by songs and dances that awed the audiences with their impressive and dazzling displays (Knox 88). Another convention t this time was the competitive nature of the performances. A panel of judges would decide winning plays from an array of playwrights who presented their works before the audience. The presentation of the plays followed a particular pattern. A total of twelve plays would be presented for adjudication with three playwrights presenting four plays each. Three of the plays would be tragedies and one would either be a comedy or a satirical piece. Men were the main actors in these plays and they performed against a temporary backdrop. Oedipus Rex has undergone a number of adaptations. The adaptations are in keeping with an emerging trend where modern playwrights are turning to ancient plays and merging them with the reality of the present circumstances. One of these adaptations was the 1967 film by Pier Paolo Pasolini which has its second part reflecting the Greek myth. Although Pasolini’s play begins with scenes from the Italian fascist era the playwright goes ahead to use the characters in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex to create a relationship with his own life story. He relates the episodes in Oedipus Rex in a dramatic twist that fits beautifully in the story of his birth. In a way, the adaptation is autobiographical and it draws its strength from the design and picturesque landscape of the setting. The adaptation is set in Morocco with the film maker employing beautiful scenery in the Moroccan landscape to bring to life his adaptation. He himself acts the role of the High priest of Thebes. There are many other adaptations of Oedipus Rex, but an outstanding element among most of them is the way they have emphasized on the aspects of sex and psychology evident in the Sophocles’ original work. For example, in some of the adaptations, Jocasta has been portrayed as an intelligent, independent sexually liberated figure. In the film, Darker Face of the Earth , Jocasta’s figure comes to life in this perspective (Leefmans 134). In writing the play, the author had various intents that he hoped to fulfill. Sophocles hoped to fill the gap that existed in Greek literature, and more so on the myths and legends that defined the Theben society. Although some of the writers of the time such as Aeschylus had explored these aspects of Theben society, their writings were not comprehensive. Aeschylus for example did not exhaustively explore the finer details of the horror of the curse visited on Oedipus. The author was also enthralled by dynamism of the themes that his story permitted. For example on the issue of one’s responsibility after committing transgressions and people’s knowledge of their own history and lineage (MacCollom, 56). The work was produced during the author’s time in 425 BCE. Considering the popularity of plays in the Greek society, the reception of Oedipus Rex was overwhelming. It is also important to note that the author was known for his competiveness and this resulted in the urge to emulate other Greek writers whose plays had received wide acclaim and positive receptions from the Greek audiences. The popularity of the play has not changed overtime, considering the relevance of most of the themes to the modern world. The theme of ‘hubris’ which refers to human pride is a phenomenon which is applicable to all societies. Oedipus for example had the wrong perception that he had the cure for the afflictions of Thebes. This pride is what we see in the world today. A case in point is in the world financial crisis where experts believe that they have the panaceas for the financial crisis but fail to realize that they too form part of the wider crisis. The author wanted to pint out the imperfections that reside in every human being. The tone of the play is set by the fact that the myth of Oedipus was evident even before it was presented by Sophocles. The audience anticipated the tragic events that would come at the end of the play even at the beginning. This awareness greatly affects the tone f the play. The drive by Oedipus to solve the afflictions of Thebes therefore has an ironic touch to it as the audience already knows that his actions are in vain. The play is devoid of a narrator. The chorus which forms the commentary of the play shows great understanding and expresses sympathy for the fate of the play’s characters. The commentary is also anticipatory of the upcoming events of the play. The senses of foreboding in the face of tragedy are important factors in setting the tone of the play. The mood of the play is set at the beginning with an opening that reflects the tragedy that has befallen the people. They are in a situation of grief following the death of the king. The play opens with a sense of mourning and grief following the death of the king. Knox, Bernard M.W. “The Oedipus Legend” Readings On Sophocles 56.2 (2008). Leefmans, Bert M.-P. Modern Tragedy: Five Adaptations of Oresteia and Oedipus the King . , 1974. Print. MacCollom, William G. Tragedy . New York: Macmillan, 1957. Print. Sophocles and E H. Plumptre. Oedipus Rex: (oedipus the King) . Stilwell, KS: Digireads.com Publishing, 2005. Print. Disguise in “The Odyssey”: Character Development & Athena’s Impact Minor Characters' Role in the "Othello" by William Shakespeare The Acts of Heroism in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” Paternal Love in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles Punctuated Equilibrium: Arguments for and Against Remembrance and Redemption Relationship The Role of Prophecies in Oedipus the King “Tartuffe” by Moliere Sophocles: Fate in "Oedipus the King" Hamlet's Relationship with His Mother (Gertrude) – Attitude Towards Her Chicago (A-D) Chicago (N-B) IvyPanda. (2018, June 7). Critical Analysis of Oedipus Rex. https://ivypanda.com/essays/critical-analysis-of-oedipus-rex/ "Critical Analysis of Oedipus Rex." IvyPanda , 7 June 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/critical-analysis-of-oedipus-rex/. IvyPanda . (2018) 'Critical Analysis of Oedipus Rex'. 7 June. IvyPanda . 2018. "Critical Analysis of Oedipus Rex." June 7, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/critical-analysis-of-oedipus-rex/. 1. IvyPanda . "Critical Analysis of Oedipus Rex." June 7, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/critical-analysis-of-oedipus-rex/. Bibliography IvyPanda . "Critical Analysis of Oedipus Rex." June 7, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/critical-analysis-of-oedipus-rex/. Oedipus Rex Themes Themes in oedipus rex, related posts:, post navigation. Ask LitCharts AI Discussion Question Generator Essay Prompt Generator Quiz Question Generator Literature Guides Poetry Guides Shakespeare Translations Literary Terms Oedipus Rex Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions Theme Analysis The ancient Greeks believed that their gods could see the future, and that certain people could access this information. Prophets or seers, like blind Tiresias , saw visions of things to come. Oracles, priests who resided at the temples of gods—such as the oracle to Apollo at Delphi—were also believed to be able to interpret the gods' visions and give prophecies to people who sought to know the future. During the fifth century B.C.E., however, when Sophocles was writing his plays, intellectuals within Athenian society had begun to question the legitimacy of the oracles and of the traditional gods. Some of this tension is plain to see in Oedipus Rex , which hinges on two prophecies. The first is the prophecy received by King Laius of Thebes that he would have a son by Queen Jocasta who would grow up to kill his own father. The second is the prophecy that Oedipus received that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Laius, Jocasta, and Oedipus all work to prevent the prophecies from coming to pass, but their efforts to thwart the prophecies are what actually bring the prophecies to completion. This raises a question at the heart of the play: does Oedipus have any choice in the matter? He ends up killing his father and marrying his mother without knowing it—in fact, when he is trying to avoid doing these very things. Does he have free will—the ability to choose his own path—or is everything in life predetermined? Jocasta argues that the oracles are a sham because she thinks the prediction that her son would kill her husband never came to pass. When she finds out otherwise, she kills herself. In Oedipus Rex , Oedipus has fulfilled his terrible prophecy long ago, but without knowing it. He has already fallen into his fate. One could argue that he does have free will, however, in his decision to pursue the facts about his past, despite many suggestions that he let it go. In this argument, Oedipus's destruction comes not from his deeds themselves but from his persistent efforts to learn the truth, through which he reveals the true nature of those terrible deeds. Oedipus himself makes a different argument at the end of the play, when he says that his terrible deeds were fated, but that it was he alone who chose to blind himself. Here, Oedipus is arguing that while it is impossible to avoid one's fate, how you respond to your fate is a matter of free will. Fate vs. Free Will ThemeTracker Fate vs. Free Will Quotes in Oedipus Rex Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more. 442 IMAGES 📚 Character Analysis of Oedipus Rex Oedipus Rex Critical Analysis Essay Example "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles Play Analysis Oedipus Rex as a Tragic Hero CW Analysis of Play "Oedipus Rex" Free Essay Example COMMENTS Analysis of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex A comprehensive overview of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, the most influential play ever written and a masterpiece of tragedy. Learn about the plot, characters, themes, and legacy of this ancient drama that explores the problem of human existence and suffering. "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles Play Analysis Essay Oedipus Rex, also known as Oedipus the King, is a play authored by Sophocles. It was first performed in 429 BC in Athens, Greece (Knox 133). The play is the second of several Sophocles' plays, and has been regarded as an excellent piece by many scholars (Belfiore 176). This report will highlight about the author, discuss the setting of, and ... Oedipus Rex Summary and Detailed Analysis Oedipus Rex Literary Analysis. "Oedipus Rex" is a classical work in which Sophocles has skillfully shown a straightforward interpretation of a Greek myth. Throughout the play, the use of dramatic irony makes this play a great success and masterpiece. The play discusses how fate plays its part in the life of the characters. A Summary and Analysis of Sophocles' Oedipus the King Summary. The city of Thebes is in the grip of a terrible plague. The city's king, Oedipus, sends Creon to consult the Delphic oracle, who announces that if the city rids itself of a murderer, the plague will disappear. The murderer in question is the unknown killer of the city's previous king, Laius. Oedipus adopts a sort of detective role ... Oedipus Rex Study Guide Historical Context of Oedipus Rex. The story of Oedipus and the tragedies that befell his family were nothing new to Sophocles's audience. Greek authors routinely drew their basic material from a cycle of four epic poems, known as the Theban Cycle, that was already ancient in the fifth century B.C.E. and is now lost to history. The Theban Cycle ... Oedipus the King Introduction - Oedipus Story. "Oedipus the King" (Gr: "Oidipous Tyrannos"; Lat: "Oedipus Rex") is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, first performed in about 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles ' three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology (followed by "Oedipus at ... Oedipus Rex Analysis Sophocles's tragedy Oedipus Rex debuted in 429 BCE at the Athenian City Dionysia, a festival dedicated to Dionysus, the God of theatre and revelry. The play took second place at the festival and ... Oedipus Rex by Sophocles Plot Summary Oedipus Rex Summary. At the start of the play, the city of Thebes is suffering terribly. Citizens are dying from plague, crops fail, women are dying in childbirth and their babies are stillborn. A group of priests comes to the royal palace to ask for help from Oedipus, their king who once saved them from the tyranny of the terrible Sphinx. Oedipus Rex Essays and Criticism In an essay on Oedipus Rex in Homer to Brecht: The European Epic and Dramatic Traditions, Paul Fry noted that "around 427 B.C., when the play was first acted, the priests of Apollo were out of ... Oedipus Rex Study Guide: Sophocles's Masterpiece Unveiled For a study guide on Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, focusing on literary devices and in-depth analysis, look no further! 📘 Dive into the tragic world of Oedipus, where fate and free will collide, with our comprehensive guide. Explore the genius of Sophocles through themes, character breakdowns, and the masterful use of literary devices that have captivated audiences for centuries. Unlock the ... Oedipus Rex Themes Oedipus's vision and intelligence have made him a great king of Thebes—he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and revitalized the city. But he is blind to the truth about his own life. It takes the blind prophet, Tiresias, to point out his ignorance and to plant the first…. read analysis of Sight vs. Blindness. Oedipus Rex Summary and Study Guide Sophocles's play Oedipus Rex, first performed in the early-to-mid 400s BCE, is one of the most famous and influential tragedies left to us from the ancient Greek tradition. Based on the myth of Oedipus, whose cursed fate was to marry his mother and kill his father, the play explores themes of destiny, free will, and literal and metaphoric ... Oedipus Rex Critical Essays Aristotle considered Oedipus Tyrannus the supreme example of tragic drama and modeled his theory of tragedy on it. He mentions the play no fewer than eleven times in his De poetica (c. 334-323 b.c ... Oedipus Rex by Sophocles Analysis. On the surface, Oedipus Rex is a play based on the myth. At work, though, are the concepts of fate, free will, and tragic flaw. ... The Oracle at Delphi in Oedipus Rex; Oedipus Rex Essay ... Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King Study Guide Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) study guide contains a biography of Sophocles, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. Oedipus Rex Critical Analysis Essay Example The popularity of the play has not changed overtime, considering the relevance of most of the themes to the modern world. The theme of 'hubris' which refers to human pride is a phenomenon which is applicable to all societies. Oedipus for example had the wrong perception that he had the cure for the afflictions of Thebes. Oedipus Character Analysis Oedipus. Extended Character Analysis. Oedipus is often considered the quintessential Aristotelian tragic hero. In Oedipus Rex, he begins the play at a high point as the benevolent and beloved King ... Themes Oedipus Rex with Examples and Analysis Theme #1. Free Will. Free will is one of the most controversial themes of Oedipus Rex. This philosophical thematic strand runs parallel to other ideas, but always dominates them. Whether a man is the master of his fate and fortune is still a debatable question. Sophocles has placed Oedipus in an uncertain situation where his fate lies in his ... Fate vs. Free Will Theme in Oedipus Rex Fate vs. Free Will ThemeTracker. The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Fate vs. Free Will appears in each section of Oedipus Rex. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis. How often theme appears: section length: Lines 1-340. Lines 341-708. Lines 709-997. Oedipus Rex Summary Oedipus Rex Summary. O edipus Rex is a Greek tragedy that tells the story of King Oedipus of Thebes, who is fated to kill his father and marry his mother.. Thebes is struck by a plague that will ... Thesis statements for essays on the tragedy Oedipus Rex A strong thesis statement for an essay on the tragedy Oedipus Rex could focus on the inevitability of fate, the consequences of hubris, or the interplay between free will and destiny. Another ... essay homework paper phd review speech study thesis