Oedipus Rex

by Sophocles

Collected lecture/discussion notes. Some parts are very fragmented, but offered here as a study aid, not a primary learning source. Citations are lost. None of the thoughts are original.

Action Outline

Prologue:

• Thebes is sick
• Creon went to oracle
• Thebes shelters a defilement
• Cure is to get rid of it
• Apollo commands revenge on murder of old king.

Chorus: Save us from the plague

Scene I:

• Tiresias tells Oedipus he is the defiler
• Oedipus accuses Creon

Choral passage

Scene II:

• Creon defends himself
• Jocasta intercedes
• Jocasta reveals prophecy and abandonment of Laius' son
• Oedipus gets hint of involvement in Laius' death
• Oedipus sends for shepherd
• Oedipus reveals own past

Choral passage

Scene III:

• Corinth messenger reveals Polybus' death.
• Messenger reveals Oedipus came from hillside
• Jocasta leaves

Choral passage

Scene IV:

• Herdsman reveals salvation of royal baby
• Oedipus goes into palace

Choral passage

Scene V:

• Servant describes horror
• Oedipus reveals blindness
• Oedipus laments and banishes self

Themes:

• All men are equal and even the high may fall
• Too much arrogance and pride can be your downfall
• Too much thirst for knowledge can be your downfall
• It doesn't pay to attempt to defy fate.
• The wise may be blind - Blindness is wisdom.

Use of chorus: [[see also "conventions"]]

1. It is an actor: Expresses opinions, gives advice, threatens to interfere (but never does) and is sympathetic with protagonist (generally - exception - i.e. Medea & Euripides)
2. Establishes the ethical framework of the play: May express author's views and set up standard against which the actions may be judged.
3. Serves as the ideal spectator: Responds the way the author would like the audience to respond.
4. Helps set modd and heighten its dramatic effects: Foreboding, contrast of celebration with disaster, etc.
5. Adds color, movement and spectacle.
6. Serves rhythmical function: Breaks in action to establish rhythms of movement of action.

Hero:

• Cannot be perfect or no pity and fear (tragic flaw);
• quest for knowledge or understanding leads to fall when "discovery" occurs;
• cannot be really bad or mean or no pity and fear (high status);
• movement from chaos to stability,
• relief of fateful burden.