Oedipus the King

I. Background

A. The Labdacids (great Theban dynasty1. Labdacus (his mother’s father is one of Cadmus’ “sown men”) a. carries off Pelops’ son while driving a chariot—kidnapping and assault b. Pelops gives “The Curse of theHouse of Labdacus”

Background

B. Oedipus Family Tree

II. Major Themes

A. Psychological1. Search for identity

a. Archetypal theme—b. What is man? – riddle of the Sphynx (solved the first time, but not the second)a. Price of self knowledgeb. The monster within

II. Major Themes

A Psychological (continued)2. child pays for the sins of the father

3. Pride

II. Major Themes

B. Social Level1. duty to the

society

2. the search for the trutha. The truth—all is sufferingb. Blindness—sight imagery

2. Search for Truth (continued)b. Blindness (con’t) = ignorance, the

ignorance of all humans (Oedipus = all of us)

That’s what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance: to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those…of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion or another. Now you know—that’s the happy existence…ignorance and blindness.

Thorton Wilder

II. Major Themes

C. Universal Level1. Respect for the gods

2. What the gods are or represent

2. Pride—greatest sin against the gods

4. Fate vs. Free Will--

III. Characters

A. Oedipus

B. Jocasta

C. Creon

III. Characters

D. Tieresius

E. Chorous

F. Messenger

G. Shepherd/Soldier

IV. Style

A. Formal tragic form—Define:1. Prologue2. Parados3. Five dramatic scenes4. Exodus

B. Contagion imagery—don’t forget the plague!

IV. Style

C. Eyes—sight—blindness symbolism

D. Use of Irony1. symmetrical—2. structural--

(see list)

IV. Style

E. Symbolism mountain1. Setting – Thebes Corinth2. Crossroads

3. Sphynx

4. Tiresias

5. Swollen feet