Oedipus Rex Lesson: Imagery
Lesson plan on the categories of imagery in the play, with the passages that students find.
ENGLISH 11AP:
Daily Plan
UNIT: Oedipus Rex
DAY: 4
Assignment to have been completed: Students should have completed their reading of Oedipus Rex.
Objectives:
- 1. To understand that imagery refers not only to sensory diction but also to categories of such diction.
- 2. To identify two categories of imagery in Oedipus Rex
Activities:
- A. Ask one of the students to explain what imagery is. (His or her answer should be something along the lines of “words that appeal to the five senses in an attempt to create a mental picture.”)
- C. Add that imagery is a term that can also identify categories of such diction. For example, The Great Gatsby used automobile imagery, gangster imagery, color imagery, and the like.
- D. Instruct students to turn to p. 1313 of the play. Starting with that page, assign one page of the play to each student. If you have not reached page 1359, repeat the process until all pages of the play have been assigned.
- E. Have students search their assigned pages for any words that refer to physical sight or light. (e.g., see, look, eye, vision, light, day, sun, etc.) Instruct them to take out a sheet of paper (which you will collect at the end of the period) and record every such word (along with the number of the line in which it occurs) on that paper. Allow about three to five minutes to complete this task.
- F. Have students search their assigned pages again for any words that refer to physical blindness or darkness. (e.g., blind, unseeing, dark, night, etc.) Instruct them to take out a sheet of paper (which you will collect at the end of the period) and record every such word (along with the number of the line in which it occurs) on that paper. Allow about three to five minutes to complete this task.
- G. Write the terms “Sight/Light” on the left-hand side of the board. Write the terms “Blind/Dark” on the right side of the board. Have three or four students record their lists under these headings.
- H. Ask the students to draw connections between the results included in the lists on the board (and their own) and the events, characters, setting, or themes of the play. They need to record these observations on their papers as well.
Assignment for next class meeting: Read pp. 1303 - 1307 in Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense.