Study Questions (3): Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)

Humanities 1010

Lange / Fall 1998

Choose one question or raise your own issue to discuss, using a total of one page. Be sure you do not repeat yourself. Please type your answers.

Due Date: October 12, 1998 (Monday)

1. Describe Oedipus's character as fully as you can. To what extent is he a realistic human being and to what extent an ideal type?

2. What are Jocasta's religious beliefs? How does she serve as a foil to Oedipus?

3. What kinds of "blindness" are there in the play? Explain their significance.

4. Sophocles uses much tragic irony in this tragedy and in others. Irony, in this sense, means that the tragic figure says something "all too true," related to his fate, that the audience understands but that he does not. Find examples of tragic irony. What is their effect?

5. Discuss the role of the gods in the play? Do humans exercise free will?

6. Oedipus the King has been interpreted both as glorification of humanity and as a defense of religion that points out human limitations. Which view seems truer in your opinion?

7. What is Oedipus's attitude at the end of the play? What has he learned about himself and life? What is the difference between a tragic view of life and a merely pessimistic one?

8. Why were myths and legends the main source of plots for tragedy and what effect did their use have?