He struggles to uncover laiuss murder and his own identity, despite numerous warnings that he should leave the truth alone. This lesson will go over the complex themes of oedipus. Themes oedipus rex with examples and analysis literary devices. There are traces in oedipus of the prehellenic medicine king, the basileus who is also a theos, and can make rain or blue sky, pestilence or fertility. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The tragic themes of incest, patricide, plague, punishment, and selfmutilation still shock todays readers of sophocles oedipus rex. Get the entire oedipus rex litchart as a printable pdf.
Oedipus rex oedipus the king study guide contains a biography of sophocles, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters. After defeating polynices and taking the throne of thebes, creon commands that polynices be left to rot unburied, his flesh eaten by dogs and birds, creating an obscenity for everyone to see antigone, 231. Oedipus the king is the play which was written by a famous greek author. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this electronic work, or any part. The main characters of this classics, plays story are antigone, ismene sister of. Setting time and place written in the 400s bc, oedipus rex takes place in. Oedipus rex oedipus at colonusantigone pdf epub book. This philosophical thematic strand runs parallel to other ideas, but always dominates them. The dominant motif in the play is, of course, sight and blindness.
Free will is one of the most controversial themes of oedipus rex. Creon thinks that he is justified in his treatment of polynices because the latter was a traitor, an enemy of the state, and the security of the state makes all of human. The main themes of oedipus rex are the tragic consequences of knowledge. Sophocles was a religious man who did not question who was in control. Knowledge, as it relates to oneself, ones family, and ones society at large. Pdf on jul 9, 2012, suhandoko suhandoko and others published analysis of. Here, creon introduces one of the main themes of this play. As you read oedipus rex, be aware of the following. Free will the ancient greeks believed that their gods could see the future, and that certain people could access this information.
This explains many things in the priests first speech, in the attitude of the chorus, and in oedipus own language after pg vithe discovery. Ap english literature and composition major work data. This news, of course, bothers oedipus, but his wife jocasta, laius wife, convinces him not believe in prophecy. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 259 pages and is available in paperback format. His plays reflect his belief that suffering serves as a way to clarify the power of the gods and their intentions for humanity. Again, sophocles uses themes in oedipus rex to show how a series of unintended wrongdoings leads to the downfall of our tragic hero, oedipus. A full version of the oedipus text is available as a downloadable pdf. Madison corriher, sarah tallman, ella muetterties, oliver bunner, morgan lewis major work data sheet attach critical article and summary and response to the back. A major theme in sophocless plays is the idea that the gods, not human beings, determine the fate of an individual. Oedipus rex is a greek tragedy that tells the story of king oedipus of thebes, who is fated to kill his father and marry his mother thebes is struck by. In oedipus the king, oedipus is a seeker of knowledge and truth. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in oedipus rex, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Aristotle believed oedipus rex to be the finest of all.
My students cant get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof. The legend of oedipus as recounted by sophocles in the theban trilogy runs as follows. The play begins with creons return from the oracle at delphi, where he has learned that the plague will be lifted if. While oedipus is committed to finding the killer, he is blind to the reality that he is. Sophocles uses many themes to create one of the greatest greek tragedies of all time.
103 1171 200 767 277 176 1050 1348 1448 70 1167 256 478 1134 616 199 1254 1135 140 222 403 728 1413 827 964 1349 594 509 711 226 1314 770 643