2/8/12 Oedipus Notes Characteristics of Tragic Hero: 1. He is noble (either of noble birth, or a good person) 2. He has a tragic flaw (hubris) 3. He recognizes the consequences of his actions. 4. The audience sees the actions of the tragic hero and is moved to pity and fear. 5. He suffers a reversal of fortune. Hubris – excessive pride, thinking you know better than the gods Prologue: Suppliant – someone begging for help “I have come myself to hear you” He’s a caring king. He wants to help his people himself, not send useless “yes men” Priest – old man, not an actual priest Plague of Thebes: 1. crops won’t grow 2. livestock animals are dying 3. babies are stillborn (born dead) “man surest in mortal ways and wisest in the ways of God. You saved us from the Sphinx…a god’s touch…enabled you to help us” The people love Oedipus, they view him as their savior b/c of the Sphinx. Priest is gushing, he’s brown nosing and over the top. (dramatic irony – he’s not bringing such good fortune b/c he killed his dad and married his mom) “my spirit groans for the city, for myself, for you” Good king, feels really bad about the plague. “I have sent Kreon…to Delphi…to learn there…what act or pledge of mine can save the city…I should do ill not to take any action the god orders” Oedipus sends his brother in law/uncle to Delphi to find the cure for the plague. Good king. He also says he’ll do whatever the gods want… “Speak to them all, it is for them I suffer more than for myself” Oedipus asks to hear the oracle in front of EVERYBODY, which means he can’t back down from the promise he made. ‘The god commands us…feed upon us longer” Something in the city is dirty and offending the gods, they must expel it from the city. “By exile or death” the defiled person must be killed or exiled (sent out of the town) “Laios once ruled this land…he was murdered; and Apollo commands us now to take revenge upon whoever killed him” The defiled person is the man who killed the king. 2/9/12 “Upon whom…years?” Oedipus wants to know how to solve a ten year old cold case. “He said a band of highwaymen attacked them…overwhelmed the king” The one witness lies and says that it was a group of bandits. He’s trying to protect himself b/c he thinks Oedipus knows he killed the king. “unless some faction here bribed him to it” Oedipus thinks one of Laios’ enemies hired the highwaymen to kill him. “The riddling sphinx’s song made us deaf to mysteries but her own” They didn’t investigate due to the sphinx “and not as though it were for some distant friend, but for my own sake. Whoever killed king Laois might – who knows? – lay violent hands even on me” Dramatic Irony, Oedipus doesn’t know that HE is the one who killed the king. “I will do all that I can…so with the help of God we shall be saved” Oedipus is sentencing himself to exile or death. Perception vs. Reality – The way the characters see the situation as opposed to the reality. Prologue: Oedipus thinks he’s a good guy and a worthy king (he brought the plague). Kreon thinks Oedipus a good guy and a worthy king who will help them through this plague (Oedipus is the problem). Oedipus thinks that Laios’ murderer will kill him. Fate vs. Free will (meant (you choose) To be, Can’t Control) Fate – the plague, the price for getting rid of the plague Free Will – choosing to let Kreon tell him about the price in public, promising to pay the gods’ price __________________ __________________ Parodos: The first verse of the chorus (random group of dudes who would stand behind the actors and make comments). Chorus represents the people of Thebes. 2 functions of chorus: 1. summarize 2. advances the plot The Parodos in Oedipus Rex summarizes. Scene 1: “Until now I was a stranger to this tale, as I had been a stranger to the crime” Dramatic Irony, Oedipus is NOT a stranger to this crime “As one who became a citizen after the murder” DI “I solemnly forbid the people of this country…ever to receive that man or speak to him, no matter who he is, or let him join in sacrifice…I decree that he be driven from every house” Dramatic Irony: Oedipus doesn’t know that he is actually talking about himself. From his point of view, he’s talking about a stranger. 2/13/12 1152 Scene One “And take the side of the murdered king” D.I. Oedipus thinks he’s on Laios’ side, but he killed him. “I pray that that man’s life be consumed in evil and wretchedness. As for me, this curse applies no less” D.I. He’s wishing evil and curses on himself, even if it’s himself (lol) “Having the power that he held before me, having his bed, begetting children there upon his wife, as he would have, had he lived – their son would have been my children’s brother, if Laois had been lucky in fatherhood” Exaggerates the incest, D.I. Laois was technically lucky in fatherhood…bad luck is a type of luck. “I take the son’s part, just as though I were son” GROSS D.I. “May the gods deny them the fruit of the earth, fruit of the womb, may they rot utterly” He says this hypothetically, but this exactly how the gods ARE punishing the town for sheltering Oedipus. Choragos: lead member of the chorus (represent the people of Thebes) “But no man in the world can make the gods do more than the gods will” Oedipus is being very humble here, but remember that it was his hubris that lead to this punishment by the gods. Clairvoyant – psychic Teiresias – blind prophet Vision vs. blindess is one of themes here. Seeing with your eyes vs. seeing the truth. “I have sent for him – twice, in fact; it is strange that he is not here” Oedipus chooses to send for Teiresias. Teiresias won’t come b/c he doesn’t want to be the bearer of horrific news. “The man who dared that act will fear no curse” Oedipus is assuming that the man who killed Laois KNEW he killed Laois and did it on purpose. 2/14/12 “Let me go home. Bear your own fate, and I’ll bear mine.” Teiresias knows everything, and he thinks Oedipus can’t stop it no matter what he does. “When it comes to speech, your own is neither temperate nor opportune. I wish to be more prudent” He’s describing Oedipus hot-headed and impulsive. “What a wicked old man you are! You’d try a stone’s patience! Out with it! Have you no feeling at all…you planned it, you had it done, you all but killed him with your own hands: if you had eyes, I’d say the crime was yours, and yours alone” Oedipus loses his temper, insults Teiresias, and accuses him of planning Laois’ murder. “So? I charge you then, abide by the proclamation you have made…pollution of this country” Teiresias cracks and tells Oedipus that HE is the one who killed Laois. “Can you possibly think you have some way of going free, after such insolence?” Oedipus is threatening Teiresias. He IS temperamental. “I say you live in hideous shame with those most dear to you” Teiresias hints about the incest. “If Kreon, whom I trusted, Kreon my friend for this great office…destroy me! He has bought this decrepit fortuneteller” He thinks Kreon is plotting with Teiresias to overthrow Oedipus and take throne for Kreon. He’s all paranoid and crazy. DI 2/15/12 Pg. 1155 “Her magic was not for the first man who came along: It demanded a real exorcist. Your birds – what good were they? Or the gods for the matter of that?” This is hubris. Oedipus is saying he’s better than the gods b/c he defeated the sphinx. “Who are your father and mother? Can you tell me? You do not even know the blind wrongs that you have done them, on the earth and in the world below…you came here to Thebes and found your misguiding berthing” Teiresias tells Oedipus about his incest thingy. “This day will give you a father, and break your heart” Teiresias realizes that Oedipus is going to find out the truth today. “To your mind he is foreign-born…please” The killer thinks he is not from Thebes, but he actually is. Obviously, he’s talking about Oedipus’ misconception about his adopted parents. “To the children with whom he lives now he will be brother and father…wet with his father’s blood” Teiresias come out and says it all much more clearly. 2/16/12 Pg. 1158 Scene 2: “The fact that I am being called disloyal to the State, to my fellow citizen, to my friends” Kreon feels that Oedipus is falsely accusing him of disloyalty. “How brazen of you to come to my house, you murderer! Do you think I do not know that you plotted to kill me, plotted to steal my throne?” He accuses Kreon of trying to kill him and steal his throne. “If you think a man can sin against his own kind and not be punished for it, I say you are mad” DI, Oedipus is the sinner, not Kreon “Why did the prophet not speak against me then?” Oedipus makes a good point. If Teiresias knows everything, why didn’t he come forward earlier? (Fate vs. Free Will, the gods are manipulating events beyond Oedipus’ control) “You married my sister? …And you rule the kingdom equally with her? …And I am the third, equal to both of you? Would any sane man prefer power, with all a king’s anxieties, to that same power and the grace of sleep” Kreon makes a good point. Why would he give up freedom and power, for anxiety and power? 2/17/12 “You do wrong when you take good men for bad, bad men for good” DI, Oedipus is a bad man himself, but he thinks he’s a good man “No, not exile. It is your death I want” Oedipus asking for execution instead of exile is basically hurting himself. Stichomythia – the quick repartee between two characters in Greek drama (two characters talk back and forth really quickly) “You will persist….It is my city too!” stichomythia “With Thebes sick to death, is it not shameful that you should take some private quarrel up? Come into the house” Iokaste is treating Oedipus like her naughty young son…DI “In the name of the gods, respect this oath of his for my sake” Iokaste is all respectful of the gods here. “You are aware, I hope that what you say means death for me, or exile at the least” Oedipus is starting to believe that this could possibly be true somehow. “If it is a question of soothsayers, I tell you that you will find no man whose crafts gives knowledge of the unknowable…That is what prophets and prophecies are worth! Have no dread of them” DI, Iokaste uses the story of Oedipus to convince Oedipus that prophecies are silly (Rofl!) Also shows disrespect for God. “If I understand you, Laois was killed at a place where three roads meet” Oedipus is starting to realize that some circumstances of Laois’ murder match his murder of an old man “He was tall, his hair was touched with white, his form was not unlike your own” DI, Laois looked like Oedipus…his son, gross “When he came back at last and found you enthroned…favor at my hands” The servant asked Iokaste for a transfer when he came back and found Oedipus in power. (more evidence against Oedipus) “I have taken too much…consult him” Oedipus is calling back the servant who survived his attack. “I heard all this, and fled…sung by the oracle” hubris, he tried to run from the truth of the gods because he felt he knew better and could stop the prophecy. “The old man saw me and brought his double goad down upon my head as I came abreast. He was paid back, and more! Swinging my club in this right hand I knocked him out of his car, and he rolled on the ground. I killed him. I killed them all” This is the action that Oedipus chose. “Think of it: I have touched you with these hands. These hands that killed your husband. What defilement!” DI, being her son is way grosser “Ah, if I was created so, born to this fate, who could deny the savagery of God” Oedipus thinks the gods set him up and he had no choice. “If he maintains that still, if there were several, clearly the guilt is not mine” Oedipus hopes that the shepherd will prove it wasn’t him. “He can not ever show that Laios’ death fulfilled the oracle…it was my child who died first” DI, nut uh