Oedipus Data Sheet

Oedipus the King is perhaps one of the most famous and influential of Sophocles' plays. It is a tragic play which focuses on the discovery by Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. On the surface of this drama there is, without a doubt, a tone of disillusionment.

In addition, the story of Oedipus Rex is another outstanding tragic literature. However, compared to Tim O’Brien’s writing style, Sophocles’ work inspires the emotions of pity and fear, and not depression. Normally a person with status, the tragic hero can be placed with sins of the gods or be a victim of given situations. Their fate often establishes an advanced social rank, often based upon exile. Tragedy illustrates the manner in which pride can overturn even the strongest characters, as it makes the readers aware of human suffering.

Place yourself back in to the times of Greek tragedy and culture, the glorious palace doors overlooking the Kingdom and the elegant, admirable robes. Here you will find the setting of “Oedipus the King” written by Sophocles, adapted in 1986 by Don Taylor. Taylor adapts this version extremely well, highlighting the main themes and significant symbolising Sophocles would have used in the play outstandingly. Also he still keeps the reflection of the Greek culture of the play too.

During the Ancient Greek period, Aristotle, a great philosopher, wrote a book called the Poetics to describe what makes a great tragic play. Using the Oedipus Rex by Sophocles as the basis for his book, Aristotle goes into great detail about plot, character, and much more, breaking up the components of a tragedy. Since Oedipus Rex had a huge part in the creation of Aristotle’s book, it fulfills many of the Greek philosopher’s requirements for a tragic play.

The plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone, written by Sophocles, display the themes defined by Aristotle. Are we the authors of our fate or is our fate written and destined to happen? In both plays, Oedipus and Antigone face their downfall because of self-will. They bring on their own doom because of their actions. The author explores many themes such as the high-standing and heroic traits of the tragic heroes as well as to the flaws and pride of Antigone and Oedipus. Finally, the author explores the theme of recognition and catastrophe. These topics are directly linked to the poetics of Aristotle. The two plays display many literary devices, the most significant ones being characterization and conflict. Oedipus and Antigone were of high-standing and had many heroic traits which influenced their actions.

Aristotle, Ancient Greek philosopher whom did a lot of philosophizing, he believed in a logical reality. Aristotle’s objective was to come up with a universal process of reasoning that would allow man to learn every imaginable thing about reality. The initial process involved describing objects based on their characteristics, states of being and actions. Aristotle once said "A man doesn 't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall”. Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. Oedipus is in fact a tragic hero. Aristotle uses six different points to define a tragic hero. (1)The tragic hero must be of noble stature and have greatness. (2)Though the tragic hero pre-eminently great, he or she is not perfect. (3)The hero 's downfall is their own fault. (4) The hero’s misfortune is not fully deserved and the punishment exceeds the crime. (5)The fall is not a pure loss. (6) And though it arouses solemn emotion tragedy does not leave the audience in a state of depression. Using Aristotle definition of a tragic hero, I will show that in Oedipus in “Oedipus the King” is in fact a tragic hero; hence, how his decisions led to his downfall. Oedipus is a man of high standing (king of Thebes) intellectually (he 's a great solver of riddles) and morally he is determined to find the murderer and to end the plague of his people). His quest to find the murderer described by

Our present day world is shaped by the countless people, places, and events in the past. It is important to understand that one small decision can change the entire course of history. Often, when an event occurs, or a decision is made, it triggers a domino effect, which triggers more events. Some of the domino effects caused by events in the past still carry on to modern times. More importantly, there are specific individuals who have made a lasting impact to civilization.

Puchner, Martin, gen. ed. “Oedipus the King.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2012. 701-747. Print.

Thesis Statement and Outline Thesis Statement: Sophocles, in his work Oedipus Rex, presents a plot attached to the structure of the Greek tragedy where fate, misfortune and death play a very important role. I. Fate and Misfortune A. The predestination of destiny and the madness of human beings for transgressing the divine laws: “The oracle, without answering the question about his parentage, prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Horrified, resolved to avert this fate, Oedipus determined never to return to Corinth”. (Greg Johnson, Thomas R. Arp, 2018, para. 2) II.

Tragic and foreboding are some of the many tones that overlook “Oedipus the King”. Oedipus is a hero with mostly good intentions but because of his tragic flaw of ignorance ends himself in agony. The fact

Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles around 430 BC, is one of, if not the most, important and influential tragedy ever written. It became the base for most of the tragedies written since. In spite of the fact that some of the story line may seem a little out of place now, parallels can be very easily drawn with the present time. Even though it was written over 2000 years ago, Oedipus the King is still fitting and applicable in today's society.

The Greeks were one of the most powerful empires of early civilizations with the well documented conquest, legends, gods, etc. One of their most significant things left of their empire, is their theatrical style, none bigger than Tragedy. The Greek Tragedy was their basis of Drama and is still studied today. Their view of the world and life could be personified in the plays and by the personages. It is the case in the play Oedipus Tyrannos. The play, written by Sophocles, represents the typical Greek view of the world with all the values that the Greeks wanted to show. This play is probably the best example to represent the typical tragic hero, in that case Oedipus. The dominant theme that Sophocles wanted to demonstrate in the play was

Oedipus The King by Sophocles is a horrible tragedy. The way the characters act and how the plot was set up created a perfect story. Aristotle’s Poetics describes how Oedipus The King becomes a tragedy by using a technique called reversal and recognition. Reversal is a very famous strategy in writing tragedies and is key in this story. It is stated as, “a change from one state of affairs to its exact opposite” (pg.523) After the reversal takes place, it’s followed by recognition. Recognition is stated as, “a change from ignorance to knowledge” (pg.523). Reversal and recognition is what makes Oedipus The King such an amazing tragedy.

Do you feel pity, sympathy, indifference, disgust, sadness, etc. for Oedipus? Why? How does the play support your feeling(s)?

exercising his free choice by making bad decisions . Oedipus certainly meets these portrayals of a tragic hero. The dialect of tragedy consists of two circles: one is a relative point and the other is impacted and the effect on its audience. Sophocles and Aristotle’s achieve that task with absolute clearness. The modern reader, coming to the classic drama not entirely to the enjoyment, will not always surrender himself to the emotional effect. He is apt to worry about Greek ‘fatalism’ and the justice of the downfall of Oedipus, and, finding no satisfactory solution for these intellectual difficulties, loses half the pleasure that the drama was intended to produce . In dramatizing stories, there will dependably blends of passionate sentiments, suspense, and fervor to discover what’s