Overview - Sophocles

and Oedipus Rex (Key Details)

Sophocles

•496 – 406 B. C.•a playwright who lived a long, comfortable, happy life•grew up in a wealthy family in ATHENS, GREECE

Sophocles•his dramatic work portrayed

misery and tragedy• reflected his strong religious

beliefs and beliefs in Gods/fate of his culture

•considered a master of artistic development of incident, working on feelings, culmination of interest leading up to final crisis, crushing blow of catastrophe

Sophocles

• By age 16, he was already known for his beauty, grace, and was chosen to lead a boys’ choir

• In his first competition, he took first prize, defeating Aeschylus the great playwright

• He won 18 first prizes, and never failed to take at least second

Sophocles

• An accomplished actor, he performed in many of his own plays

• His weak voice forced him to give up acting

• Additional duties included acting as ordained priest, serving on Board of Generals, and being director of the Treasury

Sophocles

• One of the great innovators of Greek theater, he was the first to add a third actor

• He abolished the trilogic form – made each tragedy a complete entity, unlike Aeschylus

• Credited with inventing scene-painting

Sophocles• Of his remaining 7 plays, Oedipus

the King is considered his greatest work

• Explores the depths of modern psycho-analysis as Oedipus unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother

• A masterful work of plot & suspense, it also employs allusion and dramatic irony

Sophocles

• Oedipus the King is often heralded as a ‘perfectly structured’ play

• Oedipus the King is part of three plays – Antigone (written first), Oedipus the King, and Oedipus of Colonus (405 B.C. written last)

Sophocles

•the age of Sophocles in Greece was a time when anything seemed possible through human effort and reason

Sophocles

•toward the end of Sophocles’ life, Athens raged war against Sparta, their bitter rivals•there also was a great plague in 430 B.C.

Sophocles

Sophocles’ surviving plays (written after 440 B.C.) are deeply troubling

Sophocles

These plays depict characters caught up in unsolvable dilemmas that test their faith in divine and human justice

THEMES

•Quest for identity and truth

•Nature of innocence and guilt

•Nature of moral responsibility

Imagery

•References to light and darkness to predict the future

Example of Imagery

•The priest says at the beginning: "All the house of Kadmos is laid waste; all emptied, and all darkened.”

Example of Imagery

•Oedipus promises Creon: “Then once more I must bring what is dark to light.”

Foreshadowing

•Because the audience already knows the legend/story of Oedipus, details such as dialogue, Choral responses, etc. provide key clues as to future events in the play

Example of Foreshadowing

•Teiresias tells Oedipus that it is he who is blind:

“But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind. You cannot see the wretchedness of your life.”