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Oedipus Rex | Reading Pointers for Sharper Insights

Reading Pointers for Sharper Insights

As you read Oedipus Rex, be aware of the following:

  1. the role of dramatic irony in the play (the audience knows information, specifically about Oedipus’ past, that the characters on stage do not).

  2. the emergence of the following themes, concepts, and questions:

    • sin and retribution

    • divine justice: Do people deserve what happens to them, and do the gods allow it?

    • What characteristics make a good ruler?

    • The search for one’s own identity is universal.

    • Complete control of one’s own fate is not possible.

    • In life, suffering is inevitable, but wisdom can be gained through it.

    • There exists a need to search for truth.

    • What is the value of human intellect?

  3. the conventions of Greek drama:

    • the use of masks with wigs attached

    • the chorus, which would sing in verse and dance

    • multiple roles played by the same actor

  • Since Greek tragedy grew out of the performances of lyric poetry sung by large choruses, it is only natural that the chorus should remain a large part of Greek tragedy. Every play’s chorus (usually fourteen men) took on an identity appropriate to the play. For example, in the Oedipus Rex, they are old men of Thebes; in Aeschylus’ Eumenides, they are the dread goddesses, the Furies.
    The word chorus in Greek means “dance,” and the chorus’ main function was to sing and dance lyric odes in between dramatic episodes. These odes comment on the action of the preceding episode. The chorus could also, however, act as a character; one chorus member would be designated leader and speak lines of dialogue, interacting with the other characters on stage. They react as their characters should—in the Oedipus Rex, the chorus, while concerned about Oedipus’ personal problems, care first and foremost about the fate of the city and finding a cure for the plague.