OedipusScene 1

***Literary Terms (Make sure you have all the following literary terms in your Literary Terms section of your notebook.)

1. Tragedy: A play in which a main character suffers a downfall as a result of outside forces or flaw.

2. Tragic flaw: personality trait that leads to the downfall of the hero

3. en media res: (Latin for “in the middle of things”) when the story starts in the middle of events, flashes back, then picks back up in real time

4. Hamartia: A flaw within the protagonist or mistake.

5. Hubris: excessive pride6. Pathos: the events in a literary work

which evoke feelings of sympathy and pity in a reader

7. Chorus: a performer or group of performers whose function is to comment on the action that has just occurred in a drama.

8. Foreshadowing: clues that hint to what will happen in a work of literature

9. Dramatic irony: the reader or audience knows something that a character does not know.

10. Dramatic Irony:11. Verbal Irony:12. Situational Irony:10. Indirect characterization: the writer

reveals information about a character and his personality through that character's thoughts, words, and actions

1. Direct characterization: the writer makes direct statements about a character's personality

Review1.Summarize how Oedipus came

to the city of Thebes as an adult.

2.How are the people of Thebes suffering? Why?

3.According to the oracle, how can the curse be uplifted?

Today’s Guiding Question…

•Is Oedipus cursed

because of fate or because of

flaws?

Instructions• A sheet of notebook paper, create a

chart with four columns.• Use the following headings:• 1st – Tiresias’ accusations• 2nd – Tiresias’ foreshadowing• 3rd – Murderer of Lauis• 4th – Evidence• You will need multiple rows so draw

those as you go along.You will have 10 minutes to complete

each one!Find a partner to complete all 4

investigations!

Tiresias’ accusations

Tiresias’ prophecies

Murderer of King Lauis

Evidence

Oedipus’ Decree:

1. A person with info –

• 2. A person who withholds info-

• 3. Murderer -

• Exiled but unharmed

• Banishment

• Curse of a painful life

Investigation 1Write down all the things Teiresias accuses Oedipus of. Hint #1: They are ALL located on page 277!Hint #2: There are 3!

Teiresias’ Accusations:

• 1. “You (Oedipus) are the curse, the corruption of the land! (line 401).

• 2. “I say you are the murderer you hunt.” (line 347).

• 3.“…you and your loved ones live together in infamy…” (line 365).

Investigation 2 Prophecy: the foretelling or prediction of

what is to come. Foreshadowing: An author’s use of hints

or clues to suggest events that will occur later in the story.Locate all of Teiresias’ prophecies that foreshadow the end of the play.Hint #1: They are ALL located on pages 278, 280, and 281!Hint #2 : There are 4!

Teiresias’ Prophecies:

1. “I pity you, flinging at me the very insults/each man here will fling at you soon” (lines 423-24). (You will be talked about).

2. “…the lash of your mother and father’s curse will whip your from this land one day...” (lines 476-77). (Exiled)

3. “No man will ever/be rooted from the earth as brutally as you” (Line 488-89). (

4. “This day will bring your birth and your /destruction” (lines 498-99). (Knowledge of parents will destroy him).

Investigation 3

Locate all the clues regarding the murderer of Laius.•Hint #1: They are ALL located on page 282!Hint #2: There are 7!

Teiresias’ Clues Regarding the Murderer of Laius

1. The murderer is in Thebes now.2. He is not foreign born but is a native of

Thebes.3. “A blind man who has his eyes now . . .”

(will be blinded)4. “ . . .a beggar, who is rich now . . “ (will

lose his fortune)5. He is brother and father to his own children

(guilty of incest)6. “…sowed the loins/his father sowed . . .

(slept with his own mother)7. “ . . .he spilled his father’s blood. . .”

(murdered his own father)

Investigation 4Answer the

following questions by giving evidence from your text. Answer to the best of your ability.

1. Is Teiresias telling the truth?

(Give evidence of whether of not he is a credible seer?)2. Could Oedipus

actually be the murderer?

(What character traits might reveal that he is?)

(What character traits challenge Teiresias’ claims?)

Teiresias’ Claim: Truth or Mistake?

Is Teiresias telling the

truth? • (Give

evidence of whether of not he is a credible seer?)

• The Chorus compares him with the god Apollo (god of prophecy).

• Creon recommends him

• Known all over Thebes that he has given correct prophecies for years.

Could Oedipus actually be the murderer?

• (What character traits challenge Teiresias’ claims?)

• He once saved the city from a terrible monster, the Sphinx.

He cares deeply about his people’s suffering and pain.