Spring Break Assignment

Link to play:

http://abs.kafkas.edu.tr/upload/225/Oedipus_the_King_Full_Text.pdf

Questions (use ACE):

1. The oracles had prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Is Oedipus therefore made to do these things? Is the play premised on the notion that Oedipus is bound or free--the puppet of fate or the creator of his own fate? or some of each?

2. Outline the actions presented on the stage: begin where the play begins, with the people turning to their king for relief from the plague, and disregard for the moment the revelation of incidents that preceded the play. Then summarize the antecedent actions as they are gradually revealed. In what ways are Oedipus's stage actions consistent with his prior actions? in what ways are they different?

3. What is Oedipus's primary motivation throughout the action of the play? What were his motives in actions prior to the play/ What character try to dissuade him from pursuing his purpose, and why do they do so? How do his subjects regard him?

4. Is any common pattern of behavior exhibited in Oedipus's encounters with Laios, with Teiresias, and with Kreon? Is there any justification for his anger with teiresias? for his suspicion of Kreon? why?

5. Oedipus's original question "Who killed Laios?" soon turns into the question "Who am I?" On the level of plot, the answer is "Son of Laios and lokaste, father's murderer. mother's husband." What is the answer at the level of character--that is, in psychological or philosophical sense who is Oedipus?

6. What philosophical issues are raised by kaste's judgement on the oracles (scene 2)? How does the chorus respond to her judgement? How does the play resolve these issues?

7. Why does he ask Kreon to drive him from Thebes? Does he feel that his fate has been just or unjust? Is his suffering, in fact, deserved? Partially deserved? undeserved?

8. There is a good deal in the play about seeing and blindness? What purpose does this serve? How is Oedipus contrasted with Theiresias? How does Oedipus at the beginning of the play contrast with Oedipus at the end? why is he blinding himself dramatically appropriate?

9. In what sense may Oedipus be regarded as a better man, though a less fortunate one, at the end of the play than at the beginning? What has he gained from his experience?

10. Some critics have suggested that Oedipus's answer to the Sphinx's riddle was incomplete-that the answer should been jot just man but Oedipus himself--and that Oedipus was as ignorant of the whole truth here as he is when he lays his curse in Scene 1 on the murder of Laios. Does this suggestion make sense? On how many legs does Oedipus walk at the end of the play?

11. If the answer to the Sphinx's riddle is not just man but Oedipus himself, may the answer to Oedipus's question "Who am I?" pertain not only to Oedipus but also to man, or at least to civilized Western man? What characteristics of Oedipus as an individual are also characteristics of man in the Western world? Is Sophocles writing only about Oedipus the king, or is he saying something about man's presumed place and his real place in  the universe?

12. What purposes are served by the appearance of Antigone and Ismene in the Exodos?

13. What purposes does the chorus serve int he play? Whom does it speak for? Comment on the function of each of the four Odes.

14. What does the final speech of the Choragos tell us about human life?

15. A central formal feature of the play is its use of dramatic irony. Point out the speeches by Oedipus, especially int he Prologue and Scene 1, that have a different or a larger meaning for the audience than for Oedipus himself. Sophocles's title literally translates "Oedipus the tyrant," but the word tyrant denoted a ruler who had earned his position through his own intelligence and strength rather than by inheritance--it was not a negative term. Given that, what ironies are suggested by Oedipus's title?

16. The plot of Oedipus Rex has been called done of the most perfect dramatic plots ever devised. Why is it admired? what are its outstanding characteristics?