Oedipus Scholars

Question 1

Dr Rosie Wyles (summary)

Answer 1

character of Oedipus, hamartia, religion and attitude to gods, fate and responsibility

Question 2

Dr Rosie Wyles (character of Oedipus)

Answer 2

hamartia = arrogance –> hubristic behaviour (e.g. accepting worship from his people, attitude towards oracles, treatment of Tiresias)
hamartia = temper (treatment of Tiresias, the shepherd and Jocasta)
sees his hamartia as a tragic flaw

his character caused the events before the play to occur
- he tried to escape his fate (arrogant, but understandable), resulting in it being fulfilled
- temper leads him to killing Laius
- proud of being a riddle solver - leads him to fulfil his fate

is Oedipus’ own quest and character which motivates the action and leads to his realisation and suffering

Question 3

Dr Rosie Wyles (fate and responsibility)

Answer 3

double determination - human motivation and the will of the gods / fate combine to create an unavoidable, fated outcome

Question 4

Rutherford (summary)

Answer 4

fate and responsibility

Question 5

Rutherford (fate and responsibility)

Answer 5

‘This is not a play of crime and punishment’
- Oedipus does not suffer because he did something wrong, but because of fate

‘It seems that it was Sophocles who shaped the Oedipus legend so that it became the ultimate tragedy of fate.’
- In Aeschylus’ play, Laius could have chosen not to have a son

Fate is not entirely fixed.
- Jocasta chooses to commit suicide, Oedipus chooses to blind himself, fulfilling Tiresias’ prediction

‘The divine power and the human agent are working together, hardly separable.’

Question 6

Knox (summary)

Answer 6

hamartia, character of Oedipus, fate and responsibility, religion

Question 7

Knox (character of Oedipus)

Answer 7

the ‘Sophoclean hero’ - inability to hear/understand (e.g. Oedipus won’t listen to Jocasta)

Aristotle’s hamartia = not a moral flaw, but a mistake
Oedipus has moral flaws, but his offence (killing his father and marrying his mother) committed in ignorance

his own character leads him to discovering the truth
‘what causes his ruin is his own strength and courage, his loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to the truth. In all this we are to see him as a free agent. And his self-mutilation and self-banishment are equally free acts.’

Oedipus is allowed one freedom
‘the freedom to search for the truth… there could be none more noble.’

Oedipus’ greatness comes from his willingness to accept responsibility for all his actions.

Question 8

Knox (fate and responsibility)

Answer 8

Oedipus is not a puppet.
Fate is predictable and inescapable but within it there is choice and freedom of action (to the audience).

Question 9

Knox (religion)

Answer 9

The gods are not just, but are real, and must be worshipped, reflecting contemporary worries during the war/plague

‘The play is a tremendous reassertion of the traditional religious views that man is ignorant, that knowledge belongs to the gods.’

Question 10

Finglass (summary)

Answer 10

character of Oedipus, pity, motivation

Question 11

Finglass (character of Oedipus, pity, motivation)

Answer 11

‘a tragedy of compassion’

reversal = Oedipus being the one to show pity to being the one who is pitied
- most scholars see his peripeteia as him being a successful ruler to a powerless and deeply suffering subject

Oedipus is enraged by Tiresias because of his passion to help his people rather than his temper.

Oedipus is brought down by a ‘tragic virtue’ (rather than a hamartia)
- his humane concern for others, which along with his courage, leads him to persist in finding out the truth and to his own destruction
- pity motivates him in the first half of the play as he seeks Laius’ killer, but the plot shifts to him finding out his own identity, motivated perhaps by a desire for truth rather than pity

‘The impact of this play is particularly bleak’ –> compassion is more destructive than violence

Question 12

Garvie (summary)

Answer 12

character of Oedipus, detective story, motivation, fate and responsibility, tragedy

Question 13

Garvie (tragedy)

Answer 13

(Aristotle) perfect example of a tragedy
‘presents someone of high reputation and prosperity who falls into misfortune, not because he is wicked but because of some mistake’

detective story
‘appeal for modern readers may derive from its resemblance in some respects to a detective novel’
- not about his crimes but his discovery and reaction to them

(Sophocles) ‘deep conviction that human beings are by their very nature flawed and incapable of full understanding.’
- sight and blindness theme
- Tiresias reveals the truth early on, but Oedipus cannot understand it
(Knox sees as characteristic of Sophoclean hero, but Garvie sees as how Sophocles sees all human beings

Question 14

Garvie (character of Oedipus)

Answer 14

‘We can understand why Oedipus jumps to all the wrong conclusions’ –> Tiresias and Creon killing Laius and plotting

the search for the killer turns into the ‘search for his own identity’
- Laius is forgotten
- determination to save the city from plague is forgotten
- the shepherd is never questioned about killing of Laius, for which he was originally summoned

‘In one sense Oedipus does not fall at all’
‘he never says, ‘I wish I had not found out.’ We admire him for that.’

Question 15

Audience’s attitude to religion

Answer 15

• gods are not just or fair but are real and need to be worshipped and respected
• oracles are a fact of life. States and individuals consult them routinely on every matter
• some were becoming sceptical and questioning aspects of traditional religion, such as oracles. Sophocles explores controversial question, contrasting Oedipus and Jocasta’s scepticism with the chorus’ piety

Question 16

Audience’s democratic values

Answer 16

• original audience would approve of Oedipus for being dedicated to the good of the city, for spealing out in public (when Creon suggests talking in private) and for following wishes of the chorus/people (in not banishing Creon despite his belief that Creon is guilty). Knox sees Oedipus as an ideal Athenian.
• would not like his increasingly tyrannical behaviour and refusal / ability to listen, or his hubristic behaviour in how he expects others to look up to him

Question 17

Audience’s experience of war and plague

Answer 17

• date between 430-423 BC, during second Peloponnesian War, when Athens was at war with Sparta
• in 430-429 BC, there was a plague in the besieged Athens
• play was written during or after a plague and time of war
• would affect Athenians’ reaction to plague and the chaos and suffering caused by it - increasing sense of horror

Question 18

Winnington-Ingram

Answer 18

‘the chorus’s songs are of fundamental importance for an understanding of the play.’

Question 19

Knox

Answer 19

‘what causes his ruin is his strength and courage, his loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to the truth. In all this we are to see him as a free agent. And his self-mutilation and self-banishment are equally free acts.’

Question 20

Finglass

Answer 20

Oedipus enraged by Tiresias not because of his temple but because of his passion to help his people, as he believes Tiresias is conspiring against him.