Analysis of Oedipus Rex

OEDIPUS REX was one of the world’s greatest tragedies of
an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed

about 429 BC. Of his three Theban Plays that deal with
Oedipus, Oedipus the King was the second to be written
Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles
1
Analysis of the play
ENGL 215 SEM I 2020-2021 DR RUMMANA FAROOQUI 18/04/2024

Oedipus Rex- Analysis
2
 SETTINGS- Thebes, Corinth

 Tone – Sorrow & Grief, Tragic
 Mood – Fear & Awe
 Literary Devices and Elements:
 Dramatic Irony-Dramatic irony is when the words and actions of the characters of a work of literature
have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters.
 Imagery – line 1279-1291
 Characterization-art of creating characters.
 Flashback-The story switches from the present to an event that occurred in the past.
 Motif- Sight vs. Blindness

3 Plot
 Suffering of Thebes
 Oracle of Delphi
 Murder of Laius
 Oracle of Tiresias
 Riddle of Sphinx
 King of Corinth
 Prophecy came true
 Jocasta commits suicide
 Oedipus gouges out his eyes
 He bid farewell to his daughters and leaves the city.

CHARACTERS
4
Oedipus Rex: The ruler of Thebes
 Creon: Oedipus brother-in-law, and Jocasta’s brother.
 Jocasta: Oedipus wife and mother
 Minor Characters-Apollo: The Sun god and Healer god.
 Laius: Oedipus father and Jocasta’s first husband.
 Delphi: An oracle that predicts Oedipus will kill his father and sleep with his mother.
 Tiresias: The blind prophet who predicts fate and can see the future.
 Polybus: Oedipus surrogate father in Corinth, and the ruler of Corinth
 Other Characters
 Zeus: The elders call upon the god, Zeus, to give help to Thebes and Oedipus.
 Corinthian: The man who brings news of Polybus death and who asks Oedipus to rule Corinth.
 Merope: Oedipus surrogate mother in Corinth, and current ruler of Corinth Herdsman/Shepherd:
Oedipus was given to the herdsman by Jocasta, who tried to get rid of her ill-fated child.
 Labdacids: The ruling family of Thebes, consisting of Creon, Laius and Jocasta want to rule.
 Antigone & Ismene :Oedipus daughters.
Themes
5 
Sight vs. Insight
 Tiresias is blind but can see the truth; Oedipus has his sight but cannot see the truth.
 Fate vs. Free will
 Knowledge vs. Ignorance
 Guilt and Shame
 The Willingness to Ignore the Truth This is perhaps why Jocasta feels she can tell Oedipus of the prophecy
that her son would kill his father, and Oedipus can tell her about the similar prophecy given him by an oracle
, and neither feels compelled to remark on the coincidence; or why Oedipus can hear the story of Jocasta
binding her child’s ankles and not think of his own swollen feet.
 While the information in these speeches is largely intended to make the audience painfully aware of the
tragic irony , it also emphasizes just how desperately Oedipus and Jocasta do not want to speak the obvious
truth.
 Insight and blindness
 Overall, the plays seem to say that human beings can demonstrate remarkable powers of intellectual
penetration and insight, and that they have a great capacity for knowledge, but that even the smartest human
being is liable to error, that the human capability for knowledge is ultimately quite limited and unreliable .
6 Symbols
 Oedipus’s Swollen Foot
 Oedipus gets his name, as the Corinthian messenger tells us in Oedipus the King, from the fact that
he was left in the mountains with his ankles pinned together.
 The injury leaves Oedipus with a vivid scar for the rest of his life.
 Oedipus’s injury symbolizes the way in which fate has marked him and set him apart.
 The Three-way Crossroads
 In Oedipus the King, Jocasta says that Laius was slain at a place where three roads meet.
 A crossroads is a place where a choice has to be made , so crossroads usually symbolize moments
where decisions will have important consequences but where different choices are still possible.
 In this play, the crossroads symbolizes fate and the awesome power of prophecy rather than freedom
and choice. p. 38,line 813
 Plague -Crisis

7 Structure of Greek Tragedy
 Prologue – a preface or Introduction that gives the background to the play
 Parados – marks the entrance of the Chorus when they first enter, chanting an ode that
gives background to the story.
 Stasimon – songs the Chorus sings in Greek tragedy between episodes. Choral odes are
called Stasima.
 Episode – the main action of the play ; in Greek drama it refers to that part of a tragedy
presented between two stasimons.
 Exodus – conclusion of the play where the moral of the tragedy is discussed.
 Exeunt – another word for “Exit”.

8 Study Questions
 What is the significance of the last scene of the play ?
 Do you think that Oedipus fate would have revealed itself without the messenger? How important do
you see the messenger and the shepherd were to the storyline ?
 In the play, why does Oedipus blind himself ?
 What do you know about the Delphic oracle? What function does it do in the play?
 Discuss the significance of choral odes by the Chorus in the play ?
 Discuss the role of prophecies in the paly ?
 What is the overall message of the play ?

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OEDIPUS REX was one of the world’s greatest tragedies of

an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed

ENGL 215 SEM I 2020-2021 DR RUMMANA FAROOQUI 18/04/2024

 SETTINGS- Thebes, Corinth

ENGL 215 SEM I 2020-2021 DR RUMMANA FAROOQUI 18/04/2024

ENGL 215 SEM I 2020-2021 DR RUMMANA FAROOQUI 18/04/2024

ENGL 215 SEM I 2020-2021 DR RUMMANA FAROOQUI 18/04/2024

ENGL 215 SEM I 2020-2021 DR RUMMANA FAROOQUI 18/04/2024

ENGL 215 SEM I 2020-2021 DR RUMMANA FAROOQUI 18/04/2024

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