Oedipus Rex Seminar

3 Good Ideas Prompts

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• Compare Oedipus and Kreon.
   
• The tragic hero suffers a reversal of fortune due to a certain character defect or error in judgment, known in Greek as harmatia. What is Oedipus's harmatia?

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Tragedy focuses on characters who gain  a deeper understanding of themselves and the world.  What deeper understanding of himself and the world does Oedipus have at the end of the play?

Oedipus certainly gains a deeper understanding of himself and the world throughout this play.  Oedipus learns that everybody makes mistakes, no matter how important or big you are, and you must pay your proper consequences for the actions you have committed.  Oedipus discovers that he is not perfect and that nobody in this world is truely perfect.  Oedipus learns his lesson the hard way unfortunately but teaches the world that you have to pay the consequences for your actions and nobody can get away with something because they are of higher power.  Gus Sutera Block 3

Oedipus realizes that the world does not revolve around him.  He does not have all the answers, he does not know what kind of life he will lead, and at the end of the play he is taken down a peg.  The truth that he gains about himself is that he is not a God, and should not defy the prophets that they have sent.  The deeper understanding about the world that Oedipus "gains" is that his worldview may change.  As a King, it was easy to be happy and confident all the time, knowing that he has the people's undying respect and admiration; Oedipus is leading a wonderful life.  Once reduced to a blind, incestuous man with no power and no respect, is it easy to curse the world he lives in and curse his fate; he now leads a horrible life.  Andrew Shelton, Block 1

Oedipus realizes how small and weak he is compared to the gods and the world around him.  Oedipus believed when he became king he was almost godly because he was able to save Thebes from the Sphynx.  Oedipus continued to believe that he was mighty because he believed he had not killed his father, therefore proving the prophecy wrong.  This arrogance concerning the prophecy proved as a fatal flaw of Oedipus, which ended up showing his truely human flaws.  By the end of the play Oedipus realized that he was not strong enough to change the will of the gods and prophecies. Oedipus grows in wisdom but as a blind man he realizes his true place in the universe far below that of the gods. Kyle GIbson Block 1

Tragedy is interactive, meaing its effect on the audience is crucial. The audience must make a connection with the tragic hero and "identify" with him. So here's the scary question: How can a guy who kills his father and marry his mother have anything to do with us? How can Oedipus (microcosm, the particular) be a representative of the human race (macrocosm, the universal)?

Oedipus represents the ignorance of humanity.  His tragic flaw is the need to attain knowledge and dig deep for the truth of his past and who he is.  Once he gains this knowledge, he immediately punishes himself for his doings, and probably wishes he never found out.  This is comparable to humanity's need for knowledge and how we too will strive to the best of our abilities to learn as much as we can about ourselves and the world we live in.  Unfortunately, we might not find anything we like as well.  At the end of the day, Oedipus and ourselves can agree that igrnorace is bliss. -Mary Claire Cruz block 1

Change the title of the play to Jocasta. Now what is the play about?

I think this would make her the main figure and her story the tragedy. So it might be about how she regained her life after her first husband’s death, and then lost it after she solved the riddle of who it really was she married. Then end with how she was too weak to bear the truth of her sins and ultimately take the easy way out, by killing herself. i think this version of the play might focus a bit on lost feelings she has maybe regret or maybe releif that she left her first born son for dead.  -Elizabeth Szablya block 3