Essays on Plays

1350

The Pursuit of Knowlenge in Oedipus Tyrannus

3 pages / 1170 words

Introduction Athenian citizens believed they had no volition in life, but rather contended with a lack of free will and choice as they struggled with the presence of oracles and belief in destiny. They accepted that deities could foresee the future and select individuals as...

Oedipus Rex

1351

The Character of Creon as a Foil for Oedipus in "Oedipus Rex"

2 pages / 882 words

Throughout the history of literature, authors and playwrights have often employed a foil – a character whose purpose is to create a contrast with the main character that allows the latter’s attributes to cement their presence. Ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles, in his play Oedipus Rex,...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1352

The Vision of Blindness: Sight Versus Insight in Sophocles’ Oedipus The King

3 pages / 1222 words

“Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light,which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1353

Oedipus: Celebrate The Hero

2 pages / 966 words

The story of Oedipus the King is the epitome of tragedy. A great hero, who was once revered as an equal to the gods, fell from grace when it was learned that he had killed his father and married his mother. In the time of...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1354

Abandonment of Mythos for Logos in Oedipus Rex

2 pages / 904 words

The Greek rationalists’ search for the meaning of life through rational thought instead of the traditional legends marked the first radical shift from mythos to logos. While there was no clean break with either traditional religion or belief in the supernatural, Greek thought as a...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1355

A Superior Wife and Mother

4 pages / 1920 words

In Homer’s epic The Iliad and Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King, the characters Andromache and Jocasta are confronted with tragedy and strife. Andromache endures the loss of her beloved husband while Jocasta struggles with the fruition of an ancient prophecy that she will marry her...

Oedipus Rex

1356

Intertextuality of ‘reading in The Dark’ and ‘oedipus Rex’

4 pages / 1690 words

Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark features a variety of references to Oedipus Rex in its plot and characterizations. Several critics have discussed these similarities in psychoanalytic interpretations of the novel, but the Oedipus parallels serve a more pragmatic purpose aligned with the Aristotelian narrative...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1357

The Eyes Have It: Oedipus and Responsibility in Ancient Greek Society

4 pages / 1911 words

Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus is a play about one man’s actions, both intentional and unintentional, and the necessary punishment for those actions. Regardless of whether he was manipulated by the gods or self-motivated, Oedipus must take responsibility for his deeds and their consequences. His reaction to...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1358

The Good, The Bad, and The Tragic: Morality in Hamlet, The once and Future King, and Oedipus

3 pages / 1177 words

We face moral dilemmas every day of our lives—whether it’s giving money to a homeless man or taking a peek at a peer’s chemistry test. Fortunately, the stakes aren’t high. The tragic figures of Hamlet, The Once and Future King, and Oedipus experience moral quandaries,...

Hamlet Oedipus Rex

1359

The Theme of Recognition in Oedipus The King and The Odyssey

3 pages / 1205 words

The theme of recognition plays an important role in Homer’s The Odyssey and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Two key recognition scenes are that between Odysseus and Penelope and that between Oedipus and Jocasta. Many differences can be found between the two, and although they are...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles The Odyssey

1360

Eye Imagery in Frankenstein and Oedipus The King

4 pages / 1649 words

There is an old clich? which remarks that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Eyes convey meaning and emotion. They reflect happiness, love, fear, and pain. They hold secrets, reveal lies, and leak emotion. They allow us to see the world around us....

Frankenstein Oedipus Rex

1361

Body Language: Injury and Identity in The Odyssey and Oedipus The King

2 pages / 883 words

In describing the characters of Odysseus and Oedipus, Homer and Sophocles both avoid defining these men by typical physical characteristics such as stature or distinctive facial features. Instead, these authors focus on detailing specific bodily wounds that function as embodiments of each character’s identity. Parallel...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles The Odyssey

1362

The Tragedy of Oedipus in Oedipus The King

2 pages / 779 words

Sophocles’ epic poem, Oedipus the King, is a classic elegy that explores how irony can affect ones life and how “fate works more closely” then one would expect. It is due to this that many argue over how to react to the character of “King...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1363

On The Different Translations of "Oedipus Rex"

3 pages / 1238 words

Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” (lit. “Oedipus the King”) has proven to be without a doubt one of the most acclaimed tragedies of all time, having maintained relevance in the literary canon ever since its composition and debut performance around 429 BCE. Like most high-profile works of...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1364

Seafaring Imagery in Oedipus The King

2 pages / 1064 words

Sophocles makes frequent use of seafaring imagery in his Oedipus the King, creating new perspectives from which to view its characters and cities. Oedipus tells the story of a king undone by a lack of faith in prophesy, the king of a people in need...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1365

The Role of The Chorus in Oedipus The King

3 pages / 1390 words

Introduction Chorus, in drama and music, are those who function vocally in a crew as antagonistic to those who perform singly. The chorus in Classical Greek drama was once a group of artists who expressed and commented upon the foremost motion of a play with...

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1366

The Power of Pride in Oedipus Rex and Antigone

3 pages / 1576 words

What happens when pride takes control of a human? In the plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone, Sophocles paints a dismal picture of what happens, where pride is depicted as both an obstruction to sight and an obstruction to hearing. According to Sophocles, the pride of...

Antigone Oedipus Rex Sophocles

1367

The Non-sacred Monster: Antigone and Oedipus Res as Self-determined Tragic Heroes

6 pages / 2744 words

One of the key thematic threads running through the plays of The Oedipus Cycle is the debate regarding the primary importance between the laws of the gods over those of the State. For example, in both Oedipus Rex and Antigone, the eponymous characters are torn...

Antigone Monster Oedipus Rex

1368

Eisenberg's Jocasta Poem Analysis

2 pages / 807 words

In Socrates’ Oedipus the King, the character of Jocasta plays a pivotal role in the plot. How one views Jocasta, the mother, and later, unknowingly, wife of Oedipus, is integral to progression of the story and to how one judges the various characters of a...

Oedipus Rex