Oedipus the King

FAS 101 The Integrated Arts 2010

Oedipus the King Assignment

Name: Gary Benfield

Instructions: Having read the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles, please compose answers to the following questions. Type your answers and save the file on your computer. Submit to the course Dropbox.

1. Is this a tragedy or a comedy? Explain your answer.

Oedipus the King is a tragedy, not because of the way the story is told but because of the background information that audience know and Oedipus is trying to find the answers to.

2. Identify an example of exposition in this play.

Oedipus meeting the suppliants at the altar is an example of expostion.

3. How would you describe the character of Oedipus? What sort of a person is he? Consider how Oedipus sees himself (as seen for example in the play's opening speech and his later dialogues with Creon and Tiresias).

4. Identify an example of foreshadowing in this play.

Theban Queen Jocasta's description of Oedipus as looking like Laius, her second husband is an example of foreshadowing.

5. Is Oedipus an innocent victim of an unjust fate or does he bear some responsibility in the outcome of his life? Could he have changed the fate described in the prophecies? How?

I believe that Oedipus was a victim of fate he’s parents cast him out as if he were trash only to have fate and the prophecies play out as foretold. He had no control to change his fate because he had no knowledge of his beginning to make a n informed decision. If he had known who his real parents were then he could have made different choices in life.

6. Identify the ways in which Oedipus experiences reversal.

When the messenger brings Oedipus the news about his real parents, brings a reversal of his fortune, from happiness to misery