Members of our class have asked me for suggestions for related texts.

This is an understandable request considering many of you have not read a book of poetry for pleasure (Hilly, you’re an exception to this comment!) or a collection of classic or modern classic short stories. When relating a text to ‘Oedipus the King’ it is essential that it is deep and sophisticated in regards to ideas and the ways in which language and form have been manipulated to express these ideas.

This does not mean that texts from your own wide reading are not ‘good enough’, it simply means that you must choose your text wisely.

Here is a list of possible texts:

‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley

‘Sailing to Byzantium’ by William ButlerYeats

‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe

‘Because I Could Not Stop For Death’ by Emily Dickenson

‘I Stood Musing in a Black World’ by Stephen Crane

‘The Conqueror Worm’ by Edgar Allan Poe

‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ by William Butler Yeats

‘Tulips’ by Sylvia Plath

‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’ by Ernest Hemingway

The text that you choose will depend on the points that you wish to make in regards to the concept ‘conflict’.

Sylvia Plath wrote this poem, in the months prior to her suicide. The poem captures her inner conflict as she attempts to come to terms with facing a seemingly cruel world alone. Despair pervades the poem through the cumulation of bleak images and a desperate, personal tone,  ‘Black bat airs/Wrap me, raggy shawls,/Cold homicides.’  The extended metaphor of a miner, ‘I am a miner’ and ‘I have hung our cave with roses’, elegantly conveys her vain attempts to hide away from the world whilst simultaneously striving to find something to value that will bring her joy and a sense of security. This precious object is the child as messiah that is discovered almost accidentally by Plath, ‘O love, how did you get here?’ The ‘baby in the barn’ is portrayed as Plath’s saviour, the resolution to her inner conflict, and possibly the saviour of all mankind.

Interestingly, Plath rejects formalised religion, referring to it cynically as a ‘A piranha/Religion, drinking/ Its first communion out of my live toes.’  This cynical attitude is further conveyed through her sarcastic reference to the ‘holy Joes’. Plath’s conflict with society’s valuing of religion reflects the existential crisis pervading her context. Her modern world has just morphed into the post-modern world where faith in religion has waned, replaced by a questioning of all absolute values – including traditional religious beliefs and moral frameworks.

This eternal existential conflict becomes more immediate for Plath as she internalized it with her genuine concern for the safety of herself and her child. Her suggestion that the world is collapsing in on itself is both literal and metaphorical – she is aware of the wider conflicts within society, but she is more concerned with her own conflicted sense of self. The child who the ‘blood blooms clean’ in is her one remaining hope – the reason she continues to live. On a macrocosmic level, however, the child is symbolic for humanity and the belief that the determination and strength of individuals will save the human race, despite the loss of religion and a stable moral framework.

In connecting this poem to  Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus the King’, it is apparent that it is an inversion of the play’s narrative and a subversion of its teachings about the role of man in relation to the gods. For Sophocles his protagonist, Oedipus, begins as a man of action, self-confidence and pride. However as the plot unravels and he discovers the truth about his past, his self-assurance declines. The flaw for Oedipus is his hubris and results in the fracturing of his self-conception and a dislocation from his known world. This contrasts distinctly with the persona in Plath’s poem who initially lacks confidence in herself and in her place in the world. By the end of the poem she has recovered slightly and reveals greater confidence in her future thanks to her faith in the child.

Whilst the poems can be contrasted in relation to the main characters’ identity, they can also be contrasted in relation to the perception of the role of religion and the individual. For Sophocles, the play ‘Oedipus the King’ is a vehicle through which he can make comment on the shifting view of the gods and man as evident in his world. Oedipus’ doubts in regards to the potency of the oracle’s prophecies and his belief in his own power as being equal to the gods is a narrative device established to question individuals holding similar views in Sophocles’ time. By representing Oedipus’ tragic and confronting fall, Sophocles reminds his audience of man’s place within the universe he is but a man.

In contrast, Plath’s poem suggests that religion is constraining and unreliable. It provides no comfort for her, rather it drains her of her life. This frustration with religion is highly reflective of her questioning and critical context. (See note above on poem). For Plath, the solution to her existential conflict is the determination and power of man to change the future. For Sophocles, the solution is a reaffirming of man’s awareness of his fallibility in relation to the gods and a predetermined universe.

Greek Tragedy:

This is a fantatsic site that discusses Greek Tragedy, focusing on ‘Oedipus the King’ as Aristotle’s influence for writing his rules of tragedy in the Poetics.

The site also discusses the origins of Greek theatre – the Dionysian Festivals.

Check it out:

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/greece/theater/prologue.html

This page contains a great discussion of the structure of tragedies:

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/greece/theater/playsTragicStructure.html

Style

The Genre of Greek Tragic Drama

Ever since Aristotle’s high praise regarding its structure and characterization in his Poetics, Oedipus Rex has been considered one of the most outstanding examples of tragic drama. In tragedy, a protagonist inspires in his audience the twin emotions of pity and fear. Usually a person of virtue and status, the tragic hero can be a scapegoat of the gods or a victim of circumstances. Their fate (often death or exile) establishes a new and better social order. Not only does it make the viewer aware of human suffering, tragedy illustrates the manner in which pride (hubris) can topple even the strongest of characters. It is part of the playwright’s intention that audiences will identify with these fallen heroes-and possibly rethink the manner in which they live their lives. Theorists of tragedy, beginning with Aristotle, have used the term catharsis to capture the sense of purgation and purification that watching a tragedy yield in a viewer: relief that they are not in the position of the protagonist and awareness that one slip of fate could place them in such circumstances.

Structure

The dramatic structure of Greek drama is helpfully outlined by Aristotle in the twelfth book of Poetics. In this classical tragedy, a Prologue shows Oedipus consulting the priest who speaks for the Theban elders, the first choral ode or Parodos is performed, four acts are presented and followed by odes called stasimons, and in the Exodos, or final act, the fate of Oedipus is revealed.

Staging

Tragedies in fifth-century Athens were performed in the marketplace, known in Greek as the agora. The dramatic competitions of the Great Dionysia, Athens’s annual cultural and religious festival, were held in a structure made of wood near the Acropolis. The chorus performed on a raised stage. There were no female actors, and it is still unknown (though much speculated upon) whether women attended these performances. It is also noteworthy that the performance space was near the Pnyx, the area in which the century’s increasingly heated and rhetorically sophisticated political debates took place — a feature of Athenian cultural life that suggests the pervasive nature of spectacles of polished and persuasive verbal expression.

The Chorus

The Greek chorus, like the genre of tragedy itself, is reputed to be a remnant of the ritualistic and ceremonial origins of Greek tragedy. Sophocles added three members of the chorus to Aeschylus’s twelve. In terms of form, the choral ode has a tripartite structure which bears traces of its use as a song and dance pattern. The three parts are called, respectively, the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode; their metrical structures vary and are usually very complex. If the strophe established the dance pattern, in the antistrophe the dancers trace backwards the same steps, ending the ode in a different way with the epode.

With respect to content, the choral odes bring an additional viewpoint to the play, and often this perspective is broader and more socio-religious than those offered by individual characters; it is also conservative and traditional at times, potentially in an effort to reflect the views of its society rather than the protagonist. The Chorus’s first set of lyrics in Oedipus Rex, for example, express a curiosity about

Apollo’s oracle and describes the ruinous landscape of Thebes. Its second utterance reminds the audience of the newness of Teiresias’s report: “And never until now has any man brought word/Of Laius’s dark death staining Oedipus the King.” The chorus reiterates some of the action, expressing varying degrees of hope and despair with respect to it; one of its members delivers the play’s final lines, much like the Shakespearean epilogue. Sometimes the chorus sings a dirge with one or more characters, as when it suggests to Oedipus not to disbelieve Creon’s protestations of innocence.

Setting

The play’s action occurs outside Oedipus’s palace in Thebes. Thebes had been founded, according to the myth, by Cadmus (a son of Agenor, King of Phoenicia) while searching for his sister Europa, who had been abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull. A direct line of descent can be traced from Cadmus to Oedpius; between them are Polydorus, Labdacus, and, of course, Laius.

Imagery and Foreshadowing

Associated with knowledge and ignorance are the recurring images of darkness and light in the play, and these images work as examples of a kind of foreshadowing for which the play is justly famous. When the play begins, the priest uses this set of contrasts to describe the current condition of Thebes: “And all the house of Kadmos is laid waste/All emptied, and all darkened.” Shortly after this moment, Oedipus promises Creon: “Then once more I must bring what is dark to light,” that is, the murder of Laius will out and Oedipus will be responsible for finding and exposing the culprit(s). Metaphorical and literal uses of darkness and light also provide foreshadowing, since it is Oedipus’s desire to bring the truth to light that leads him to a self-knowledge ruinous and evil enough to cause him to blind himself. After the shepherd reveals his birth he declares, “O Light, may I look on you for the last time!” In saying this he sets up for the audience, who are, presumably, familiar with the legend of Oedipus, his subsequent actions. The second messenger describes his command to himself as he proceeds to perform the gruesome task: “From this hour, go in darkness!” thereby enacting both a literal and metaphorical fall into the dark consequences of his unbearable knowledge. These are but a few examples of how imagery and foreshadowing as techniques can meet, overlap, and mutually inform one another in the play; through subjective interpretation, many more may be found.

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/oedipus-rex-play-4

Dramatic Structure (Linear/Pyramidal)

1. Exposition

The exposition sets both the tone and theme

For us the ‘theme’ is conflict.

The four types of conflict you may encounter:

Man Vs. Man / External Struggle
Man Vs. Environment / Struggle Against Fate

Man Vs. Society / Moral Struggle
Man Vs. Self / Internal Struggle

2. Rising Action

This is the development of the problem that must be overcome.

3. Inciting Incident

Compounding Conflict / Altercation

Comic Relief / Tension Release

4.  Climax

5. Deus Ex Machina

7. Denouement / Falling Action

Source: http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/narr.html

Tragedy

Aristotle’s definition of tragedy: A tragedy is the imitation in dramatic form of an action that is serious and complete, with incidents arousing pity and fear where with it effects a catharsis (emotional outpouring) of such emotions. The language used is pleasurable and throughout appropriate to the situation in which it is used. The chief characters are noble personages (“better than ourselves,” says Aristotle) and the actions they perform are noble actions.

Central features of the Aristotelian archetype:

1. The tragic hero is a character of noble stature and has greatness. If the hero’s fall is to arouse in us the emotions of pity and fear, it must be a fall from a great height.

2. Though the tragic hero is pre-eminently great, he/she is not perfect.Tragic flaw, hubris (excessive pride or passion), and hamartia (some error) lead to the hero’s downfall.

3. The hero’s downfall, therefore, is partially her/his own fault, the result of one’s own free choice, not the result of pure accident or villainy, or some overriding malignant fate.

4. Nevertheless, the hero’s misfortune is not wholly deserved. The punishment exceeds the crime. The hero remains admirable.

5. Yet the tragic fall is not pure loss – though it may result in the hero’s death, before it, there is some increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge or, as Aristotle puts it, some “discovery.”

6. Though it arouses solemn emotion – pity and fear, says Aristotle, but compassion and awe might be better terms – tragedy, when well performed, does not leave its audience in a state of depression. It produces a catharsis or an emotional release at the end, one shared as a common experience by the audience.

A pretty cool user-friendly discussion of ‘Oedipus the King’:

http://www.pathguy.com/oedipus.htm

Oedipus Rex: Catharsis

According to Aristotle tragedy should arouse the feeling of pity and terror – pity for the hero’s tragic fate and terror at the sight of the dreadful suffering befalling particularly the hero. By arousing pity and terror, a tragedy aims at the catharsis of these and similar other emotions and cures these feelings which always exist in our hearts. A tragedy, hence, affords emotional relief and the spectators rise at its end with a feeling of pleasure. This, according to Aristotle, is the aesthetic function of tragedy. Through catharsis the emotions are reduced to a healthy and balanced proportion. Besides pity and fear an audience also experiences contempt, hatred, delight, indignation, and admiration. Still, these emotions are less important or less intense. Pity and fear are the dominant emotions and they are intensely produced.

Tragedy, by means of pity, fear and other emotions also provides exercise and nourishment for the emotional side of human nature. It also satisfies our love of beauty and of truth, of truth to life and truth about life. Experience, and more experience, is a natural human craving. Tragedy leads to an enrichment of our experience of human life. It may teach us to live more wisely and widen the boundaries of our experience of life. Tragedy shows the eternal contradiction between human weakness and human courage, human stupidity and human greatness, human frailty and human strength. Tragedy gives us pleasure by exhibiting human endurance and perseverance in the face of calamities and disasters.

Pity and fear are the dominating feelings produced by the play “Oedipus Rex”. Apart from catharsis of these feelings, the play deepens our experience of human life and enhances our understanding of human nature and human psychology. The prologue produces in us pity and fear, pity for the suffering population of Thebes and fear of future misfortunes which might befall the people. The Priest, describing the state of affairs, refers to a tide of death from which there is no escape, death in the fields and pastures, in the wombs of women, death caused by the plague which grips the city. Oedipus gives expression to his feeling of sympathy, telling the Priest that his heart is burdened by the suffering ofall the people. The entry-song of the Chorus following the prologue heightens the feelings of pity and fear. The Chorus says:

“With fear my heart is riven, fear of what shall be told. Fear is upon us.”

Oedipus’ proclamation of his resolve to track down the murderer of Laius brings some relief to us. But the curse, which Oedipus utters upon the unknown criminal and upon those who may be sheltering him, also terrifies us by its fierceness. The scene in which Oedipus clashes with Teiresias contributes to the feelings of pity and terror, the prophecy of Teiresias is frightening because it relates to Oedipus. Teiresias speaks to Oedipus in alarming tones, describing him in a veiled manner as “husband of the woman who bore him, father-killer and father-supplanter” and accusing him openly of being a murderer.

In the scene with Creon, the feeling of terror is much less, arising mainly from Oedipus’ sentence of death against the innocent Creon which is soon withdrawn. The tension reappears with Oedipus’ suspicion on hearing from Jocasta that Laius was killed where three roads met. Oedipus’ account of his arrival at Thebes arouses the feeling of terror by its reference to the prophecy which he received from the oracle, but both terror and pity subside when Jocasta tries to assure Oedipus that prophecies deserve no attention. The song of the Chorus harshly rebuking the proud tyrant revives some of the terror in our minds, but it again subsides at the arrival of the Corinthian after hearing whom Jocasta mocks at the oracles. The drama now continues at a rather low key till first Jocasta and then Oedipus find themselves confronted with the true facts of the situations. With the discovery of true facts, both the feelings of pity and fear reach their climax, with Oedipus lamenting his sinful acts of killing his father and marrying his mother.

But the feelings of pity and fear do not end here. The song of the Chorus immediately following the discovery arouses our deepest sympathy at Oedipus’ sad fate. The Chorus extends the scope of its observations to include all mankind:

“All the generations of mortal man add up to nothing.”

Then comes the messenger from the palace and he gives a terrible account of the manner in which Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus blinded himself. The messenger concluded his account with the remark that the royal household is today overwhelmed by “calamity, death, ruin, tears and shame”. The conversation of the Chorus with Oedipus who is not blind is also extremely moving. Oedipus speaks of his physical and mental agony and the Chorus tries to console him. Oedipus describes himself as:

“…… shedder of father’s blood, husband of mother, Godless and child of shame, begetter of brother-sons”.

The feeling of deep grief by Oedipus is experienced by the audience with an equal intensity. The scene of Oedipus’ meeting with his daughters is also very touching. His daughters, laments Oedipus, will have to wander homeless and husbandless. He appeals to Creon in moving words to look after them.

The feeling of pity and fear has been continuously experienced from the very opening scene of the play. Other feelings aroused in our hearts were irritation with Oedipus at his ill-treatment of Teiresias, anger against Teiresias for his obstinacy and insolence, admiration for Creon for his moderation and loyalty, liking for Jocasta for her devotion to Oedipus, admiration for Oedipus for his relentless pursuits of truth and so on. But the feelings of relief, delight and pleasure have also been aroused in us. These feelings are the result partly of the felicity of the language employed and the music of poetry, but mainly the result of the spectacle of human greatness which we have witnessed side by side with the spectacle of human misery. The sins of Oedipus were committed unknowingly; in fact Oedipus did his utmost to avert the disaster. Oedipus is, therefore, essentially an innocent man, despite his sin of pride and tyranny. Jocasta too is innocent, in spite of her sin of scepticism. There is no villainy to be condemned in the play. The essential goodness of Oedipus, Jocasta and Creon is highly pleasing to us. But even more pleasing though at the same time saddening is the spectacle of human endurance seen in Jocasta and Oedipus inflicting upon themselves a punishment that is awful and terrible. In the closing scene, the blind Oedipus rises truly to heroic heights, displaying an indomitable spirit. Blind and helpless though he now is, and extremely ashamed of his parricide and incestuous experience as he is, he yet shows an invulnerable mind and it is this which has a sustaining, cheering, uplifting and exhilarating effect upon us.

Jocasta’s fate underlines that of Oedipus. So does the great song of the Chorus on the laws which are “enthroned above”. The song and in particular the denunciation of the tyrant are relevant to Oedipus and Jocasta. The song begins with a prayer for purity and reverence, clearly an answer to Oedipus’ and Jocasta’s doubts about the oracles. It ends with an even more emphatic expression of fear of what will happen if the truth of the divine oracles is denied. Between the first and the last stanzas the Chorus describes the man who is born ofhybris, such hybris as is displayed by the King and the Queen. The description follows to a large extent the conventional picture of the tyrant, mentioning his pride, greed and irreverence. Not every feature fits the character of Oedipus, nor should we expect that. The Chorus fears that he who behaves with presumption, pride and self-confidence will turn tyrannical and impious, and they foresee that Zeus, the true King of the world will punish the sins of the mortal King. If he does not do so, all religion will become meaningless, and all will be lost.

Source: http://engliterarium.blogspot.com/2007/12/oedipus-rex-catharsis.html