Analysis of Oedipus Rex 1

Oedipus Rex

Komal Mohammad Moosa

Bachelor’s student

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

Classical and Renaissance Drama

Sir Arsalan Siddique

Analysis of Oedipus Rex 2

Analysis of the Drama

Q: 1 Impact of reading Oedipus Rex on you as an audience or reader.

Answer 1: After reading Oedipus Rex my first feeling was of immense sympathy for the
Oedipus. As what he experienced as person was far more to bear, being the father of his own
brothers and sisters is something which is almost an impossible action for a determinant person
like Oedipus, as such people first of all think about right, wrong and justice to be served. My
second feeling was of discontentment for a person who at a time proved to be most wise to save
the whole of Thebes from Sphinx and at later times proves to be the most foolish person due to
his stubbornness which is expressed in his conversation with Jocasta when Oedipus asks about
the king’s shepherd who handed child Oedipus to the messenger
JOCASTA: Why ask me what he means? Forget all that.
There’s no point in trying to sort out what he said.

OEDIPUS: With all these indications of the truth

here in my grasp, I cannot end this now.
I must reveal the details of my birth.

JOCASTA: In the name of the gods, no! If you have

some concern for your own life, then stop!
Do not keep investigating this. "
I will suffer—that will be enough.

Jocasta says this that she will suffer is because she had understood everything by the time
messenger told how he got child Oedipus and then keeps on urging Oedipus not to investigate
any further but stubborn Oedipus gives a deaf ear to her.

Overall this play has impacted in my strategies to solve the problem that is to choose wisely
rather than being always right and just and to give a good ear to what someone advices.

Q: 2 Oedipus Rex suffers from the fear of killing Laius act as foreshadowing. Discuss

Answer 2: There are number of reasons why Oedipus was frightened. The major of which was
his instinct that first got its fear from the God Apollo when he first revealed on him The
Prophesy that his fate was destined to be tragic. This instinct was strengthened when Jocasta tells
him about the route where king Laius was murdered because Oedipus too had killed someone on
the same route after listening The Prophesy from Apollo.

OEDIPUS: Lady, as I listen to these words of yours,

my soul is shaken, my mind confused … ( says in response to hearing that King Laius was also
killed at a place where three roads meet)

JOCASTA: Why do you say that? What’s worrying you?

OEDIPUS: Oh Zeus, what have you done?

Analysis of Oedipus Rex 3

What have you planned for me? (says when he comes to know that the incident occurred at the
same time when he had killed someone)

OEDIPUS: I am afraid,
full of terrible fears the prophet sees.
But you can reveal this better if you now
will tell me one thing more. (he wanted to confirm whether there was just one man or troop so
that he can somehow confirm that he was not the killer)

Later he was confirmed from the messenger of the Corinth that he was the one who killed King
Laius.

Q: 3 what is Dramatic Irony and how in Oedipus Rex we can prove its implications in the play?

Answer 3: Dramatic Irony occurs when the audience is more aware of the facts or upcoming
scenes than the characters. In Oedipus Rex Dramatic Irony starts occurring from the point when
the blind prophet Teiresias tells him almost everything about his fate and tragedy that had
occurred already and was going to be occurred. But Oedipus thinks of it as a plot knitted by
Creon and fails to interpret any answer in rage what he actually was seeking.

TEIRESIAS: You may be king, but I have the right"

to answer you—and I control that right,
for I am not your slave. I serve Apollo,
and thus will never stand with Creon,
signed up as his man. So I say this to you,
since you have chosen to insult my blindness—
you have your eyesight, and you do not see
how miserable you are, or where you live,
or who it is who shares your household.
Do you know the family you come from?
Without your knowledge you’ve become"
the enemy of your own kindred,
those in the world below and those up here,
and the dreadful feet of that two-edged curse

from father and mother both will drive you

from this land in exile. Those eyes of yours,
which now can see so clearly, will be dark.
What harbour will not echo with your cries?
Where on Cithaeron10 will they not soon be heard,
once you have learned the truth about the wedding
by which you sailed into this royal house—"
a lovely voyage, but the harbour’s doomed?
You’ve no idea of the quantity
of other troubles which will render you
and your own children equals. So go on—
Analysis of Oedipus Rex 4

keep insulting Creon and my prophecies,

for among all living mortals no one
will be destroyed more wretchedly than you.

By this time Oedipus had already announced exile for the killer so it was quite clear from this
dialogue for the audience that who’s was the tragic fate.