Oedipus Rex

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have read “Tragedy and Comedy,” pp. 1303-1310.

Activities:

• A. Use the following questions to direct a discussion of the assignment. I have provided answers to help you.

  • 1. What is the difference between literary truth and fidelity to fact?

    Literary truth is an expression of the essential human condition.

    Fidelity to fact involves adherence to historical and biographical accuracy.

  • 2. What is the difference between realistic and nonrealistic drama?

    Neither is an evaluative term, only descriptive. They relate to staging, language, lighting, and other effects.

  • 3. List several dramatic conventions.

    The fourth wall
    Characters speak audience’s language
    Actors face audience most of the time

    Use of soliloquies and asides
    Characters speak in verse

  • 4. What is a chorus?

    A group of actors speaking in unison, often in a chant, while going through the steps of an elaborate formalized dance; used to convey communal or group emotion

  • 5. Identify two nonrealistic conventions of movies.

    Two-dimensionality

    Monochromatism

  • 6. What is the perfect definition, the airtight system of classification of drama?

    None exists.

  • 7. What is the most important question to ask about a play?

    Does it furnish an enjoyable, valid, and significant experience?

  • 8. Why should a reader or viewer of drama be familiar with traditional notions of tragedy and comedy?

    That knowledge may enhance understanding and appreciation of plays.

  • 9. What is the purpose of arousing pity and fear in the audience to a tragedy?

    It effects a catharsis – a release – of those emotions.

  • 10. What type of man does Aristotle call for in an ideal tragedy?

    The hero must be a man of noble stature, frequently a prince or king.

  • 11. What two symbolic values may the king as hero possess?

    1) greatness manifested by qualities of passion or aspiration or nobility of mind

    2) initial good fortune (high position)

  • 12. Why is it important that the hero occupy a high position or possess good fortune at the beginning?

    If he is to arouse in us pity and fear, he must fall from a height.

  • 13. The tragic hero is good but not perfect. According to Aristotle from what does his fall result?

    His fall results from hamartia, an act of injustice committed either through ignorance or from a conviction that some greater good will be served.

  • 14. If the tragic action arises from ignorance or nobility, how can it be criminal?

    The implicit assumption is that an act may be wrong in itself–regardless of intentions or mitigating circumstances.

  • 15. A misreading of Aristotle has given rise to the strongly held concept that the hero’s fall is due to a “tragic flaw”—some fault of character such as inordinate ambition, quickness to anger, a tendency to jealousy, or overweening pride. Others sometimes attribute the fall to excessive nobility that makes the character unfit for life among ordinary mortals. In these cases, who is responsible for the hero’s downfall?

    The hero himself remains responsible.

  • 16. What is the most essential difference between tragedy and comedy?

    Tragedy emphasizes human greatness while comedy delineates human weakness.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read pages 1310-1327 of Oedipus Rex. On a separate sheet of paper, indicate each new tone as it occurs. Jot down at least one piece of evidence to support each tone you identify. You must identify at least five different tones.