Discussion Topic

The convention and effect of offstage violence in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex compared to contemporary drama

Summary:

In Oedipus Rex, offstage violence is used to evoke horror and focus on characters' psychological responses rather than the spectacle itself. This contrasts with contemporary drama, which often depicts violence onstage to create immediate visual impact and emotional engagement. The ancient convention emphasizes the moral and thematic consequences, while modern drama leans towards realism and direct audience confrontation.

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Discuss the convention of offstage violence in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.

Twenty-first century popular media, including film, television, videos, and games as well as plays, present sexual acts, murder, torture and rape in full and realistic detail on stage or screen for the enjoyment of their audiences. In Greek drama, all of those acts would be presented offstage in tragedy; satyr plays (a form of comedy) would allow for stylized sexual acts (using six foot long leather phalloi), but not violence.

The main debating point on the modern side of the issue revolves around freedom of speech, and that, as argued by John Stuart Mill in his seminal work "On Liberty", we should allow all acts unless it can be proven that they cause harm to individuals within our society or our society as a whole. On a practical level, censorship simply does not work; despite, for example, the best efforts of international law enforcement to eradicate child pornography, it...

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continues to exist. The next argument made in favor of explicit violence is that it occurs in reality, and thus should be shown as entertainment. The final argument in favor is basically a market one, that since some people eagerly pay to watch pornography, pain, and suffering, that free market economics mandate that buyers and sellers should be able to trade freely in such entertainment (this claim would also, of course, mandate legalization of child pornography as well). 

The classical position, as applied to Oedipus Rex, is somewhat more nuanced. First Greek tragic staging does not aim towards realism but towards a certain dignity and grandeur. There were two episodes of violence that could have been presented directly on stage, Jocasta's suicide and Oedipus' stabbing out his eyes. There were several reasons for these and other forms of violence being performed off stage. First, there is the realism argument. Actors, whether in ancient or modern works, do not actually kill themselves or blind themselves on stage. Although all acting is unrealistic (an actor is always pretending to be someone else), the actions done by actors on stage in Oedipus consist mainly of talking, which is something they are actually doing. Actors pretending to be fighting or dying look artificial by contrast. 

More importantly, when we see simulate acts of grotesque violence or perverse sexuality (e.g. if we had a bedroom scene with Oedipus and his mother), we tend to react viscerally and emotionally at a level that precludes actually thinking about or learning anything from the work. Although we experience some of that horror as we hear the messengers recount murders, or see Oedipus stumble out onto stage in a mask with blood painted around the eye area, we are invited to think about the events of the play rather than react simply on the level of emotion.

Finally, there is the issue that viewing violence brutalizes an audience by teaching them that human pain and suffering are forms of entertainment to enjoy rather than real ills in the world in need of remedy. By keeping violence offstage, it can still be part of the plot of a play without having that brutalizing effect upon the audience and without assenting to the notion that when we see people suffering as victims of violence that we should just sit back and pass the popcorn.

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What effect does offstage violence in Sophocles' "Oedipus the King" have? How does it compare to violence in contemporary drama?

To the ancient Greeks, drama was a religious experience.  These festivals were in honor of Dionysis, god of fertility and merrymaking.  The theater was a church.  The Chorus were akin to priests.  Tragic heroes were great men, the highest among peers.  To bring violence on stage was to dishonor the gods, to bring possible ruin on families, crops, and animals.  It was sacrilege, base, corrupt, a cheap thrill, pandering to the audience.  So, Jocasta must kill herself and Oedipus must gouge his eyes out off stage.  Even their marriage bed, a symbol of incest, cannot appear on stage.

It wasn't until the Romans, namely the playwright Seneca, that violence and revenge were brought on stage.  Seneca was very influential to the Rennaissance playwrights, Shakespeare in particular.  Shakespeare took Seneca one step further and added more controversial themes.  In the tragedy Othello, he blends race, sex, and violence perfectly.  Why?  Because he was a secular playwright, not a religious one.

Compare Oedipus to Othello.  In Othello, there is open talk of bestiality from the beginning.  Cassio is drunk and Montano gets stabbed.  Cassio and Roderigo stab each other, and Iago finishes off the latter.  Othello strangles his wife.  Iago stabs his wife.  Othello stabs Iago but doesn't kill him.  It's a river of blood compared to Oedipus.

And the bed is on stage in Act V!  Shakespeare gives the audience access--for the first time in theater--not only to a bed, but the bed of a black man and white woman.  It's scandalous by comparison.  Shakespeare uses violence as the by-product of revenge, as it should be.  It is a pagan, non-religious act.  He uses it mainly in pivotal scenes and turning points, usually in Act IIIs, and always in Act Vs.  He gives the blueprint for modern theater to come.

Modern theater uses more special effects for realism, but too often that's only theatricality, a gimmick.  Violence must fit the dramatic arc of the story; otherwise, it is gratuitous.  Recently, Teller from the comic/magic team of Penn & Teller staged the bloodiest Macbeth ever.  It was visceral, to be sure, but it's still Macbeth: one can only cheapen it, I think.  So much blood, ironically, takes away from the other, non-visual imagery.  Its comes across as a Gallagher comedy show.  The audience worries about getting splattered.

Movies are gratuitous; drama should not be.  Movies are meant to be heard (blared, really); drama is meant to be overheard.  Herein is the difference.  One is a visual medium; the other is primarily an auditory medium.  As Oedipus teaches us: the eyes are fickle and easily fooled.  The beauty of drama is the language; violence must be secondary.  Movie violence is akin to pornography (explicit, emotionally arousing); drama violence is aimed at catharsis (purgation of pity and fear).

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