Title: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Genre: Play Date Written: 429 B.C. A.

SYNOPSIS OF PLOT * Oedipus addresses his people about the plague. Oedipus tells his people that he has already taken precautions by sending his brother-in-law Creon to Delphi to consent Apollos prophets. * Creon returns with what he thinks is good news: the city can be purified if the murderer of Laius is brought to light and punished. * Oedipus places a curse on the person responsible for the former-kings death and refuses to give up until justice is brought to light. * The blind seer Tiresias is then brought forward because he would be the one to know who committed the crime. * At first Tiresias refuses to declare the criminal, but after ridicule and accusations from Oedipus he firmly declares that Oedipus is the man responsible for the crime. Tiresias also tells of Oedipus blindness to his parents and wife. * Oedipus is greatly angered and accuses Creon and Tiresias of conspiring together to dethrown him and that it was not him who murdered the king. * After Creon and Oedipus argue, Jocasta, the queen, tells Oedipus not to worry about prophecies for she knows from experience they are false. She tells Oedipus about the prophet who prophesized the death of King Laius by their son and how it never happened because their son was killed, and Laius was killed by strangers at a place where three roads met. * From this, Oedipus is able to make some vague connections about his murder of the former-king. He tells Jocasta of his worries and has the Shepard, the lone-survivor, sent for to see if he is the murdered or King Laius. * Meanwhile a messenger from Corinth appears, and brings happy news that Oedipus is to be King of Corinth because King Polybus died. * This brings more joy because Jocasta is convinced that Oedipus could not have killed his father and thus has no worries. Yet Oedipus still worries that he may bed his mother. * The joy is short-lived when the messenger informs Oedipus that Polybus was not his true father and that he was a gift to the king by the hands of the very messenger and shepherd. * The shepherd called for earlier happened to be the very shepherd the messenger got the child from and is brought forward. Regretfully, the old shepherd tells Oedipus he was a son of Laius and sent to die on Mount Cithaeron. * Oedipus finally learns the truth about his doom and rushes into the palace. * He finds Jocasta, his wife/mother, dead by her own hand, and he digs out his eyes. * His final wish to Creon was to make sure his daughters were taken care of and to hold them one last time before he would be exiled forever.

B. CHARACTERS AND MOTIVATION Oedipus He is the King of Thebes who has to help his people overcome the plague. Oedipus is motivated by justice and honor he is determined to find the killer of Laius in order to free his people from the plague. Jocasta She is Oedipus wife and Queen of Thebes. She was also the wife of King Laius before he was killed. She is motivated by love for those closest to her, and by honor in regards to family morals. Creon He is Jocastas brother and shares power amongst Oedipus and Jocasta. He is motivated by truth and loyalty - he refuses to back down to Oedipus when he is accused of treason. Tiresias He is the blind prophet called forth by Oedipus in hopes of solving the crime that will end the plague. He is motivated by his sight and refusal to tell Oedipus who the killer is in order to spare the King pain from the pain that will come. Chorus The chorus is composed of the Theban citizens. They are motivated by their loyalty and admiration towards King Oedipus who saved them all from the Sphinx. C. STATEMENT OF THEME No matter how hard you may try, fate is not always something that can easily be outrun. Rationale In an effort to avoid Apollos vision from coming true, Oedipus ran away from Corinth. Instead of running away from his doom, his rash action only cemented his inevitable fate. On his journey to Thebes, Oedipus unknowingly killed his father when they tried to push him off the road. Then by solving the riddle and freeing the Thebans from the horrendous Sphinx, he was given a bride who happened to be his mother. Thus Apollos prophecy was fulfilled when he dived head first into his fate, which he would have avoided all together if he stayed in Corinth. D. MOTIFS Blindness Come to these hands of mine, your brothers hands, your own fathers hands that served his once bright eyes so well that made them blind. Seeing nothing, children, knowing nothing. Loyalty But reject a friend, a kinsman? I would as soon tear out the life within us, priceless life itself. Honor Now my curse on the murdererlet that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step I curse myself as wellif by any chance he proves to be an intimate of hour house, here at my hearth, with my full knowledge, may the curse I just called down on him strike me! Hubris

Here I am myself you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus. Innocence See nothing, children, knowing nothing, I became your father, and fathered you in the soil that gave me life. E. CHARACTER ARCHETYPE Oedipus can be considered an Outcast in this play. -He committed many horrendous sins (although out of innocence), is banished because of them, and is destined to wander away from Thebes. -Crime against his fellow man - In effort to escape Apollos vision, Oedipus runs away from Corinth, and by doing so he kills his father and ends up marrying his mother and having children with her. He does the very thing he tried to avoid. -Banishment - Due to these events, a plague struck Thebes which resulted in the truth of Oedipus doom. His punishment is to be banished from the city of Thebes. -Wander Oedipus can never return to Thebes since he has disgraced the house and its city. F. RESEARCH/MAJOR WORKS Sophocles was born around 496 B.C. During the war against the island of Samos, Sophocles was one of the ten generals elected. However, Sophocles career as a dramatist began around 468 B.C. when he won his first prize at the Dionysia over Aeschylus. Sophocles won first prize at least twenty-four times, and produced more than 120 plays. He was one of the most famous playwrights in Greece at the time. Sophocles was also one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose works have survived the passage of time. Antigone Oedipus at Colonus Ajax Electra Philoctetes The Trachiniae G. PERSONAL REACTION This play certainly received my attention. I had never heard the story of Oedipus, so it came as quite a shock when I read the misfortunate deeds committed by Oedipus. Although strange, I enjoyed the play because it was unlike anything I had ever read before. However, reading the play made me feel pity towards Oedipus because he truly was innocent of the crimes he committed. When he ran away from home (Corinth) he thought he was doing a noble deed by sparing the lives and honor of his family. However, strange coincidences caused him to do the opposite of his intentions. I thought Oedipus was just an innocent man driven to doom by the merciless gods.