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Oedipus the King Sophocles - Coggle Diagram
Oedipus the King Sophocles
Background
Author : Sophocles
Type of work : Play
Genre : Tragedy
Time : Around 430 b.c.,
Written and production : In Athens, Greece
Tone : Tragic
Oedipus the King (429-420 BCE), also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannos ('Tyrannos' signifies that the throne was not gained through an inheritance) is the most famous surviving play written by the 5th-century BCE poet and dramatist Sophocles. The play is part of a trilogy along with Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus.
Oedipus, in Greek mythology, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. Homer related that Oedipus’s wife and mother hanged herself when the truth of their relationship became known, though Oedipus apparently continued to rule at Thebes until his death.
Element of the Play
Character
Oedipus
The protagonist of Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus
Jocasta
Oedipus’s wife and mother, and Creon’s sister.
Creon
Oedipus’s brother-in-law
Antigone
Child of Oedipus and Jocasta, and therefore both Oedipus’s daughter and his sister
Polynices
Son of Oedipus, and thus also his brother
Tiresias
Tiresias, the blind soothsayer of Thebes, appears in both Oedipus the King and Antigone
Haemon
Creon’s son, who appears only in Antigone
Ismene
Oedipus’s daughter Ismene appears at the end of Oedipus the King and to a limited extent in Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone
Theseus
The king of Athens in Oedipus at Colonus
Chorus
Sometimes comically obtuse or fickle, sometimes perceptive, sometimes melodramatic
Theme
Free will and fate
search for truth
Self Discovery
power and justice
pride hath a fall
ignorance/blindness
guilt and shame
Setting
Ancient City of Thebes
Plot
Exposition
the citizens of Thebes beg their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that threatens to destroy the city. Oedipus has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle to learn what to do. On his return, Creon announces that the oracle instructs them to find the murderer of Laius, the king who ruled Thebes before Oedipus. The discovery and punishment of the murderer will end the plague.
Rising Action
The blind prophet Tiresias accuses Oedipus himself of killing Laius. Oedipus naturally refuses to believe Tiresias’s accusation. He accuses Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against his life. Before leaving, Tiresias saying that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife.
Climax
Oedipus learns from the Theban shepherd that Jocasta had given the baby Oedipus to him to expose on Mount Cithaeron, but that the Theban shepherd gave the baby to the Corinthian shepherd, who in turn gave Oedipus to Polybus and Merope of Corinth. That baby was Oedipus, who in fact killed his father Laius and married his mother, and he is the man responsible for the plague that has stricken Thebes. Oedipus realizes that he has fulfilled his awful prophecy.
Falling Action
Oedipus flees back into the palace, Oedipus finds that the queen has killed herself. Oedipus takes the pins from her gown and rakes out his eyes, so that he can no longer look upon the misery he has caused.
Resolution
Oedipus asks Creon to send him away from Thebes and to look after his daughters, Antigone and Ismene.
Moral Value
Fate is very important and that the gods control what goes on in your life. No matter what you do to stop your fate it will not work; it may take longer to get there but your fate will come true.