Oedipus the King Part I Problem

Oedipus the King Part I

Problem • “…have seen our city reeling like a wreck/ already; it can scarcely lift its prow/ out of the depths, out of the bloody surf. / A blight is on the fruitful plants of the earth, / A blight is one the cattle in the fields, / a blight is on our women that no children/ are born to them; a God that carries fire, / a deadly pestilence, is on our town, / strikes us and spares us not, and the house of/ Cadmus/ is emptied of people while black Death/ grows rich in groaning and lamentation. ” (I. i. 23 -33)

Problem • Focus on fertility and agriculture • City is suffering in every way • House of Cadmus is empty – Mythical founder and first king of Thebes • House of Hades is full

Characterization • Oedipus – “You came and by your coming saved our city, / freed us from tribute which we paid of old/ to the Sphinx, cruel singer. This you did/ in virtue of no knowledge we could give you, in virtue of no teaching; it was God/ that aided you, men say, and you are held/ with God’s assistance to have save our lives. ” (I. i. 39 - 45) • • How Thebans view Oedipus almost God-like Great pride Identify the king with the land – Cause of blight is the king's fault – It’s his responsibility to fix

Characterization • “My spirit groans/ for city and myself and you at one…” (I. i. 72 -73) • “I sent Menoeceus’ son/ Creon Jocasta’s brother, to Apollo, to his Pythian temple, / that he might learn there by what act or words/ I could save this city. / …But when he comes, then, may I prove a villain, / if I shall not do all the God commands. ” (I. i. 72 -73, 78 -86) – Feels the pain and sorrow of his citizens – Oedipus sends for help – Intelligence, energy and responsibility

Dramatic Irony • Something the audience knows that the characters do not – “By banishing a man, or expiation/ of blood by blood, since it is murder guilt/ which holds our city in its destroying storm” (I. i. 114 -115) – “let someone/ punish with force this dead man’s murderers” (I. i. 120 -121). • We know that it is Oedipus that killed Laius, unbeknownst to him

Dramatic Irony • “Whoever/ he was that killed the king may readily. Wish to dispatch me with his murderous hand; / so helping the dead king I help myself” (I. i. 161164). – Demands that Creon reveal prophecy publicly • Arrogance? – Oedipus takes the challenge thinking that he can purge the land by punishing another. – Sense of responsibility drives his search for the truth; his downfall • Hamartia - tragic flaw – Causes audience to pity him despite his arrogance

The Chorus • Provide a break in action • Discuss the problems in Thebes – Plague is as devastating as war • Moves actors to outside palace for next scene • Reflect fear and foreboding which will ensue – Pray to gods for help • • • Daughter of Zeus- Athene God of War Ares Amphitrite- sea goddess, wife of Poseidon King Lycean- Apollo God with turban of gold, Dionysus- god of wine

Dramatic Irony • Search for truth – “I proclaim to all the men of Thebes; / who so among you knows the murderer/ by whose hand Laius, son of Labdacus, / died- I command him to tell everything/ to me, - yes, though e fears himself to take the blame/ on his own head; for bitter punishment/ he shall have none, but leave this land unharmed” (I. i 242 - 247).

Dramatic Irony • “a stranger to the story” (248) • He’ll fight for Laius “as if he were my father” (301) • Double identity of Oedipus as son and as murderer is prominent image throughout this scene – Increases dramatic irony and characterization of Oedipus

Teiresias • Prophet who can “see” • Oedipus demands to know the truth and calls upon the blind prophet – “…save yourself and the city, / save me; redeem the debt of our pollution/ that lies on us because of this dead man. / We are in your hands; pains are most nobly taken/ to help another when you have means and power” (I. i. 237 -341).

Teiresias • Warns against the prophecy – “Let me/ go home. It will be easier for us both / to bear our several destinies to the end/ if you will follow my advice” (I. i. 249 -337). – Oedipus’ desire to prove his worthiness outweighs rationalizing the warning of Teiresias

Teiresias • Teiresias doesn’t want to say what he knows – “I will not bring this pain upon us both, / neither on you or on myself. Why is it/ you question me and waste your labor? I/ will tell you nothing” (I. i. 363 -366). • Enrages Oedipus to be denied • Teiresias says things will come in due time

Teiresias • “I say you are the murderer of the king/ whose murderer you seek” (404 -405). – He is very sure – Oedipus becomes angry • He dismisses the prophet’s words • The murderer you “seek” – theme of sight and blindness – you are blind the truth you seek

Teiresias • Oedipus questions the power of Teiresias – “When the dark singer, / the sphinx, was in your country, did you speak/ word of deliverance to its citizens” (438 -440). • Says if you were a true prophet you would have solved the riddle • Prideful, self-assured – Hamartia

Teiresias • “And now you would expel me, / because you think that you will find a place/ by Creon’s throne” (449 -451). – Accuses Teiresias of plotting against him with Creon • Thinks Creon wants the throne

Creon • “Citizens, I have come because I heard/ deadly words spread about me, that the king/ accuses me” (576 -578). – Comes to clear his name – Denies any scheme to take over the throne • Honest and trustworthy? • Believable in the eyes of Oedipus? • His only way to interpret is accuse them of wrong doing

Creon • “…if you think any one/ would choose to rule and fear rather than rule/ and sleep untroubled by a fear if power/ were equal in both cases. I, at least, / I was not born with such frantic yearning/ to be a king…” (I. i. 654 -660). – Political philosophy • Why want to be king when he has no fear yet reaps the benefits – Jocasta

Jocasta • “…he should die a victim/ at the hands of his own son, a son to be borne/ of Laius and me…the thing he feared, / death at his son’s hands, never came to pass. / So clear in this case were the oracles, / so clear and false” (I. i. 791 -805). – Do not believe the oracle it was wrong before • Dramatic irony • Suspense • Instills more worry in Oedipus

Oedipus • “O dear Jocasta, / as I hear this from you, there comes upon me/ a wandering of the soul- I could run mad” (I. i. 808 -810). – Realization of the parallel to his own story – Realization of killing father and marrying his mother – Begins to suspect but too terrible to admit it

Jocasta • “. . . declared that the king should be killed by his own/ son. And that poor creature did not kill him surely-/ fir he died himself first. So as far as prophecy/ goes, henceforward I shall not look to the/ right of the left” (962 -967). – Says that Laius wasn’t killed by his son so the prophecy is wrong – Tries to reassure him

Oedipus and Jocasta • “If it happened there was any tie/ of kinship twixt this man and Laius, / who is then now more miserable that I, / what man on earth so hated by the Gods, / since neither citizen nor foreigner/ may welcome me at home or even greet me, / but drive me out of doors? ” (I. i. 908 -914). • Tells Jocasta his suspicions of killing • Rely on the robbers as hope

Chorus • Terrified and helpless at the outcome • Images of caves, darkness, lightning, and wings, which suggest darkness, the unknown, and, most significantly, terror striking from the skies aka the Gods