preview

Reflection Paper On Oedipus

Satisfactory Essays

Oedipus Response Paper
The play Oedipus, written by Sophocles is about a man and the production of Oedipus directed by Don Taylor, unfolds a story of a man, Oedipus, who is a king of Thebes. The city of Thebes has been threatened with the plague and in order to defeat the plague, Oedipus has to find the killer of his predecessor, Laius. Oedipus then realizes he was the one who killed Laius, not knowing it was him. An oracle once told Oedipus that he would kill his father and marry his mother and Oedipus realizes his fate from the oracle came true. He then realizes his wife, Jocasta is actually his mother. Oedipus then stabs his own eyes after realizing the horrendous things he has caused and would rather never see the misery he created.
After viewing the production of Oedipus, I first noticed the costumes and how many people were wearing costumes that didn't coincide with the time period. The attire of Oedipus, played by Michael Pennington is more modern than anyone else in the film. Oedipus wears an all- white suit that looked likes 70s attire. This differed for the play because while reading, I never pictured anyone to be dressed in a more modern costume. Also, I noticed the verbiage of the production was very much different than the original play and they used words that would be more understood than what Sophocles wrote. I found this this technique to be brilliant because Taylor used everyday language to convey what Sophocles said but more understandable and enjoyable for the modern age. During the film, Jocasta is played by a women, which I was surprised by since men usually played all roles. When reading the play, I didn't imagine the amount of background music that was played during a lot of the film. The music sometimes seemed to not make sense with what was happening in the scene. The production did clarify both the meaning and theme of the play because even though Taylor changed some aspects of the play, he still understood the importance of sticking with the play's theme as it is an important part of the play. While reading the play I never thought of Thebes to be so somber and gloomy as the production perceived it. The production of Oedipus had minor characters in greys and black, somber music, and

Get Access