“WHO NEEDS OEDIPUS
REX?”
Sara Montejano
Thesis Statement
Oedipus Rex is a play that possess the ability to
move it’s audience; however the audience it was
intended to move has drastically changed and the
play no longer invokes the same shock value as it
did in Ancient Greece.
Let’s take it back a few centuries…



Oedipus Rex is written
around 430 B.C.
Theatre starts to
transform during this
time, becoming more
modernized.
Theatre plays an
important role in
public festivals.
Ancient Greek Theatre Develops



“The style of acting can best
be described as
nonrealistic”(Brian).
Actors wore masks which was
the actors persona. Indicating
the age, social standing, and
sex of the character.
All the actors were males; and
had used slow, stylized
gestures to convey their
character.


The idea of a single actor
was created by Thespis.
Which is associated to our
word “thespian” meaning
actor.
“Aeschylus who is most famous
for his tragic trilogy the
Oresteia, introduced the
concept of a second actor,
expanding the possibilities for
plot and histrionics through the
interaction of two characters
in his dramas”(Terzoulin).
Who was Sophocles?




He was the son of a wealthy
merchant and was lucky enough
to study all the arts.
In his first playwriting competition
in 468 B.C he took 1st place
defeating Aeschylus.
Wrote over 120 plays, the most
popular being the Oedipus
trilogy.
“Sophocles served many years as
an ordained priest of Alcon and
Asclepius, the god of
medicine”(Sophocles).
Sophocles’ Innovations

Sophocles was the first to
use a third actor. He also
changed the way trilogies
were performed. Instead
of the three stories coming
together to tell one story
he “chose to make each
tragedy a complete story
in itself as a result of
which he had to pack all
of his action into the
shorter form”(Sophocles).
The Atmosphere





The City Dionysia was a festival held
every year to honor the goddess
Dionysus.
Theatres were large arenas;
amphitheaters holding up to 20,000
people.
“For three days audiences came to
the Theatre of Dionysus at daybreak
to watch a trilogy of plays each
day”(Brian).
These festivals also included religion,
politics and civic debate.
“Tragic playwrights wrote plays that
explored man’s relationship to the
god’s, the conflict between the
individual and the state, and the role
of fate in determining the outcome
of one’s life”(Brian).
Theatre…Not the movies!




Theatre of today is not as
popular as it was in the time of
Sophocles.
Actors are both male and female
and don’t rely on masks to
convey their persona.
Plays are rarely performed in
arenas anymore and usually are
in a more intimate setting.
Playwrights are now questioning
man’s relationship with the world
and himself more that his
relationship with the gods and
the roles of fate.
Shock Value Then And Now
Then “Oedipus Rex”




Oedipus is a character who, “contains all the
virtues for which the Athenians were famous
and the vices for which they were
notorious”(Lawall 613).
Questions man’s ability to control fate.
“Oedipus determines his own conduct, by being
the man he is”(Lawall 614).
The most obvious shock in this play would be
that Oedipus has slept with his mother and she
had his children, being both mother and
grandmother.
Greek tragedies didn’t show much violence on
stage, the act of Oedipus gauging out his eyes
and Jocasta hanging herself was done offstage
and explained by the chorus.
Now “Oedipus Rex”



Today we see Oedipus’ character as more of a
weak, ignorant man.
The idea of gods and fate has changed to
more of people taking matters into their own
hands and people are trying to control their
own fates. There are no prophesies or oracles
other than the occasional palm reader and
physic. Today’s society put less and less trust
into those people and put more trust in what
can be proven by fact or concrete evidence.
The shock of mother and son sleeping together
would still be shocking today but the small bits
of blood would do nothing to shock a modern
day audience.
Watch this….
This is closely
resembles
what was seen
by the
audience in
Ancient
Greece.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0R
NmFK3SRI
In this we see blood but the actual
gauging of the eyes doesn't happen on
stage. In today’s film we have movies
like Saw, Hostel, Texas Chainsaw
Massacre to name a few in which
violence and gore is shown often.
Today’s shock



In the clip we see blood but the actual gauging of the eyes
doesn't happen on stage. In today’s film we have movies like
Saw, Hostel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre to name a few in
which violence and gore is shown often.
Now audience are less and less shocked by violence and
gore; almost as if we are numb to the reality of what we
are watching.
Shocking today’s audience would call for gruesome murder
scenes and more sexuality in the production. “Oedipus Rex”
though very interesting does not shock audiences the same
way as it did in 430 B.C.
So what does all this mean…


Plays such as “Oedipus Rex” are meant to invoke
thought and emotion from their audiences. Modern day
audiences have become more “numb” to the shock that
was groundbreaking in Sophocles’ time, and require
more extreme forms of violence and irony to truly be
shocked the same way Athenians were in their time.
“Oedipus Rex” has become more of a classic play
amazing in it’s time, a new play version is needed for
modern day audiences to shock and make them think
the way Sophocles intended.
Works Cited
Brian, Doyle L., comp. "A Study Guide for Sophocles' Antigone." Didaskalia.
King's College London. 18 Nov. 2007
<www.didaskalia.net/issues/vol6no3/doylestudyg.htm>.
Doyles, Teri. "Ancient Greece." Cedarville University. 22 Nov. 2007
<http://www.cedarville.edu/academics/education/resource/schools/chca/
othergrades/greecetd/greece1.htm>.
Lawell, Sarah, ed. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. A.
New York: W,W, Norton & Company, 2002. 612-658.
"Sophocles." Online-Literature. 12 Nov. 2007 <http://www.onlineliterature.com/sophocles/>.
Terzoulin, Gas. "History of Theatre From Ancient Greece." Newsfinder. 17 Nov.
2007
<http://www.newsfinder.org/site/more/history_of_theatre_from_ancient_
greece/>.
"The Oedipus Trilogy." Online-Literature. Jalic.Inc. 11 Nov. 2007
<http://www.online-literature.com/sophocles/oedipus/>.