Oedipus Overview

Oedipus Rex Overview

Over the next two weeks, we will read and discuss Oedipus the King. The play is in Perrine’s, from pages 1312-1359. Please keep up to date on all readings. A television version of the play will be posted on the blog. If you want to watch each scene as you read the play, please go to the blog and find the link.

 

Guiding Question:

According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power above them, more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass.  Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others.  Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.

 

Reading Schedule:

Reading	Due Date	Character Study
Prologue	In class 11/26
Parados and Scene 1 (page 1317-1326)	Wednesday 11/28	Teresias
Ode 1 (1326-1327)	In class 11/28
Scene 2 (1327-1331)	Friday 11/30	Oedipus
Strophe (1331-1338)	In class Friday 11/30
Ode 2, Scene 3, Ode 3 (1338-1345)	Tuesday 12/4	Chorus or Jocasta (Iokaste)
Scene 4 and Ode 4 (1345-1349)	In class Tuesday 12/4
Finish Play (1349-1359)	Thursday 12/6	Oedipus

 

Character Study:

Each night that you read, you will also be responsible for writing a character study on one character in the play. Your character study should be one page long—it can be typed (double spaced, making it two pages) or handwritten in pen. The character study should start by introducing the character and briefly describing him or her (with a little bit of plot summary). Then go on to assert your ideas about the role of this character in the play and their journey through a conflict, climax, and possibly resolution. This should include quotes from the play. (For the text note, please list the lines in the play where the quote comes from). Each of these character studies will be worth 25 points. As with your journals, I will grade some for credit, and others for content.

As you write, please consider the following.

Is the character static or dynamic?

What is the character’s main conflict? What type of conflict is it? What complicates or deepens the conflict?

What motivates this character to do what he/she does?

What are the character’s strengths? Weaknesses?

What literary devices or figurative language does the playwright use to portray this character?

What are the other characters’ perceptions of this character?

Is there a climax to this character’s conflict? Is there a resolution?

What impact does this character have on other characters?