1. Frank Iglesias Andy Herrera Christina Cuadrado Christina Vines Emily Sol Victoria Jones5/6/15

2.  Has various titles, most common are Oedipus Rex and Oedipus the King.  The author is Sophocles.

3.  Oedipus  His dominant trait lies mostly in his commitment and his belief in himself and the love he shares with his wife.  Creon  The dominant traits portrayed by Creon are rationality and calmness, which appear as Oedipus slowly falls into madness and paranoia throughout the play.  Jocasta  Jocasta’s dominant character trait is her skepticism. She establishes fairly early on her disbelief in fate and oracles, and it’s this trait that is used to bring into question the visions Teiresias tells Oedipus about

4.  Tiresias  Tiresias’ dominant trait is his wisdom and his all-knowing nature. The all-knowing trait he possesses is an irony in the sense that he is an omnipotent character, but physically blind and so he knows more than those around him but sees nothing.  Antigone and Ismene  Antigone and Ismene don’t play a major roll in Oedipus Rex.  Antigone’s dominant trait is her sense of righteousness and devout faith in her religion.  Ismene’s dominant character trait is to act as a foil to her sister and act as the voice of a rule follower and peace keeper.

5.  The story begins with a plague devastating the city of Thebes, and soon after Creon reveals that salvation lies within the unraveling of the late king Laius’ murderer.  Oedipus acting as the current king promises exile of the murderer, even if blood related.  Tiresias the blind prophet under pressure reveals that Oedipus is in fact the killer which causes massive turmoil.  Queen Jocasta soon reveals that she and Laius abandoned a baby at an early age to prevent a prophecy of incest and murder; this revelation leads to Oedipus making a connection to a man he killed a long time ago at a crossroad, and thus ends up assuming he is in fact the killer.

6.  Oedipus' parents, Polybus and Merope are revealed to be his adoptive guardians and not his birth parents.  Oedipus discovers he was left as a baby in the woods and found by a Shepard; he is in fact from the house of Laius.  With this revelation, Jocasta being mother and wife to Oedipus, kills herself which prompts Oedipus to blind himself, since he could not bear to see the world now that he has learned the truth.  Oedipus says his goodbyes and is exiled from Thebes, breaking the curse and resolving the problem in the play.

7.  Oedipus Rex was published around 420 B.C. and takes place in Thebes.  Thebes is in Ancient Greece, the setting of the play is appropriate because, the Greek put a lot of importance on the concept of morality. Breaking of the moral code usually ended in death, or some other cruel punishment. Because Oedipus’ crime included sleeping with his mother, he broke the moral code and took it to a whole new level.

8.  Because Oedipus Rex is a play, there is really no one characters perspective to pinpoint. The play has multiple characters speaking in their own voices to add their input, creating viewpoint characters.  Viewpoint Characters- One whose eyes witness the events.

9.  Oedipus’ Swollen foot - It symbolizes the way his movements have been confined and constrained since birth by Apollo’s prophecy to Laius.  Three Way Crossroad - In this play the crossroads are where impactful decisions are made, just as is seen when Oedipus has slain his father and the role of fate comes in and the prophecy begins.  Willingness to Ignore the Truth - Oedipus refuses to acknowledge that he might be responsible for his father’s death. This is a pivotal point in the play because this is when Jocasta and Oedipus ignore the servant and what he perceives to be false information, claiming that it is nonsense. Ignoring the truth Oedipus and Jocasta share what they believe to be a funny story and ironically come to the same realization that the oracle and the servant were right.

10.  The Limits of Free Will - An ironic theme because of its affect on the plot. In the story it seems that Oedipus’ father, the king at the time, has the power of free will so he decides to do away with Oedipus so that the Prophecy the oracle gave would never come true. However the irony in it is that it all came around and ended up coming true and rolled out free will but rather raised the question about destiny and its role. This theme is a complex yet compelling agent used by the author to explain destiny and convey the idea of its inescapability.

11.  “ Fear? What should a man fear? It’s all chance, chance rules our lives. Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark. Better to live at random, best we can. And as for this marriage with your mother—have no fear. Many a man before you, in his dreams, has shared his mother’s bed. Take such things for shadows, nothing at all— Live, Oedipus, as if there’s no tomorrow!”  "O god-all come true, all burst to light! O light-now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last-cursed in my birth, cursed in marriage, cursed in the lives I cut down with these hands!"  "You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!"

12.  A big motif is sight and blindness, for example the most famous moment in the play is when Oedipus gauges his eyes out. Also Oedipus is figuratively blind throughout the story because he cannot see the truth until he accepts the truth and then he has to gauge his eyes out because he cannot handle it. While Tiresias is blind yet he can see the truth and Oedipus for who he really is.

13.  The main judgement of the human condition comes from the viewpoint of Tiresias. Tiresias in the play is physically blind, however he is extremely good at foreseeing people’s future. Tiresias tells Oedipus that his future will end in a demise, but Oedipus refuses to believe his fate. Because of his ignorance to the truth, Tiresias says that Oedipus and “society” in general is blind to the truth. Which is ironic in itself since Tiresias is blind. The concern for human nature is that even when our truth or fate are placed in front of us we will still try to ignore it in an attempt to believe what we want to see. Ultimately turning a blind eye to the unfavorable.