1. Oedipus: sacrifice and character values Group 3
Cat Smith, Erika DiLuca, Carly Sablatura, Bethany Ung, Daria Hatter

2. Prompt
 It has often been said that what we value can be determined by what we sacrifice. Consider how this statement applies to a character from Oedipus the King. Select a character that has deliberately sacrificed surrendered or forfeited something in a way that highlights that character's values. Then analyze how that particular sacrifice illuminates the character's values and provides a deeper understanding of the meaning of the work as a whole. 

3. Literal Meaning of the Prompt
The prompt asks to identify a character that has shown their personal values through giving up important aspects of their life. In “Oedipus The King,” Sophocles’ idea of presenting the play was to exhibit the themes of sacrifice and fate, which are demonstrated through Oedipus sacrificing both his place as king and his family because of his effort to prevent a prophesy, showing his moral values against the themes of murder and incest prevalent in his predicted future.

4. Major Themes Guilt and Shame Fate vs. human action
Our prompt specifically combines these two as Oedipus sacrifices his childhood home to prevent a prophesy as an exemplar of his moral values. Once these moral values are shown to be broken, Oedipus exhibits guilt and shame that Sophocles hopes communicates the brevity of immoral action to his audience in the Greek theater.

5. Text + Analysis
"...Apollo...foretold a dreadful calamitous future for me – to lie with my mother and beget children men's eyes would not bear the sight of – and to be the killer of the father that gave me life. When I heard that, I ran away." (Sophocles 56)
Oedipus sacrifices his familial relationship with his parents when he runs away to Thebes. He cuts all ties with his parents because he is certain the shameful prophecy will come true if he remains near them. This shows Oedipus values his status as a morally upright man. Oedipus's eagerness to escape shows his dedication to upholding his valued identity. His family abandonment parallels with the time he accused Creon on plotting against him to steal his power. Oedipus similarly surrenders a brotherly relationship with Creon because he believes Creon has committed the immoral act of treachery by using a fake prophet to make Oedipus run away.
Hey I’m not sure where this is supposed to go but just add it under one of the organizational headings please

6. Tiresias

7. Literary Devices and archetypes

8. verbal Irony
"Jocasta perhaps—she is proud, like a woman—feels  shame at the low circumstances of my birth" (79).
Oedipus speaks of how he will not betray his lineage or be dishonored, and how Jocasta is ashamed of him because he was not of royal birth. This is ironic because he doesn’t know that he is Jocasta's and Laius' son which makes him of royal birth. He also has already betrayed his lineage by killing his father, and dishonoring his family by committing incest and murder.

9. Situational Archetype: The Quest
" The ruler of this land my lord, was called Laius. That was before you took the helm of state... It is to his death that Apollo's command clearly refers"(7).
" I will not give up the search for truth about my birth" (79).
Oedipus unknowingly goes on a quest to find the truth about his origins when he is give the task of solving Laius’ murder by the god Apollo.

10. Symbolism: The Golden Pin
"He ripped out the golden pins with which her clothes were fastened, raised them high above his head, and speared the pupils of his eyes" (93).
The pin represents the bliss of ignorance. Just as how the pin keeps Jocasta’s garments together, the lack of truth of Oedipus’ history is also holding he kingdom together. When the truth is finally revealed, Oedipus symbolically takes the bliss of ignorance from Jocasta as he also takes her pin, and later tries to blind himself to the truth both with the pin, and with ignorance.

11. Character Archetype: The outcast
"You must send me into exile—away from Thebes" (106).
An individual that is exiled from society or leaves by choice, in the novel this occurs multiple times. Oedipus leaves Corinth so that he does not kill Polybus, which is leaving society by choice. At the end, he begs for the society to exile him. 

12. Oedipus and Tiresias

13. Significant moments

14. Tiresias's Sacrifice 
“You are all ignorant. I will never reveal my dreadful secrets, or rather, yours... I will not cause pain to myself or to you. Why do you question me? It is useless. You will get nothing from me... You are the murderer, you are the unholy defilement of this land." 
Tiresias sacrificed his discretion and secrecy in order to tell Oedipus his prophecy, which would then turn him into a traitor in the eyes of Oedipus. He sacrificed his comfort by being in favor with Oedipus in order to remain faithful to Apollo and tell the truth of his prophecies. 
Good organization and text used! Just needs a title

15. Jocasta's Sacrifice
" Jocasta, our queen, is dead... By her own hand... And there we saw Jocasta, hanging, her neck caught in a swinging noose of rope."
Jocasta sacrificed not only her life but her rule and her life with her children. By realizing the horrifying mistake she made by marrying and having children with her own son, Oedipus, she was driven into an state of psychological torture and sacrificed everything she had to live for. 

16. Oedipus's sacrifice
" He ripped out the golden pins with which her clothes were fastened, raised them high above his head, and speared the pupils of his eyes... Banish me from this country as fast as you can to a place where no man can see me or speak to me." 
In the beginning of the novel Oedipus was psychologically blind, some could argue deliberately, but once he realized the truth he was both forced and chose to sacrifice everything. First by becoming physically blind, then by losing his reign and his children after asking to be banished forever from the city of Thebes. 

17. Polybus and Oedipus

18. Additional/related Prompts
Get it? Related????

19. 2017 Oedipus Prompt: Oedipus Rex features a character who's origins are unusual or mysterious. Analyze how these origins shape the character and that character's relationships, and how the origins contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole.

20. 2017 Oedipus Prompt
A character with mysterious origins is Oedipus, because when he finds out that Polybus isn't really his father, he doesn’t know who his real father is. These origins made Oedipus "dreadfully afraid that the blind prophet could see.” (53) Eventually, after asking everyone that had information about his origins, he finds out that he is the child of Lauis and Jocasta. This contributes to the play because it promotes Sophocles's idea of guilt and shame, because Oedipus banishes himself from Thebes because of his wrongdoings.

21. 1977 Oedipus Prompt:
Choose a character who views the past with such feelings as reverence, bitterness, or longing. Show with clear evidence from the work how the character’s view of the past is used to develop a theme in the work.

22. 1977 Oedipus Prompt
Oedipus’s view of his past, more specifically his longing for his abandoned childhood home and family, is used to develop a theme of cosmic insignificance of human action. Oedipus describes his precautions in avoiding his family, adding that although the intended result was reached “there is nothing sweeter than the sight of one’s own parents” (69). His loss is felt in the widespread human empathy of loss of love, but the dramatic irony of his statement shines through; Even though Oedipus has taken every human length to avoid a prophesy of fate, including alienating himself from the people he believes to be his own mother and father, all of his effort has been futile in stopping forces much bigger than he can comprehend. Here, Oedipus’s longing for his family illuminates a history of immense effort and personal sacrifice that is ultimately unable to contend with fate.

23. Works Cited
Sophocles, and Roger D. Dawe. Oedipus Rex. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.
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