Oedipus the king ppt
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Transcript of Oedipus the king ppt
Oedipus the King
Ms. Lucas – English II
Sophocles• 496-406 B.C.• Athens, Greece (Golden Age of Athens– center for democracy)• He won 24 times out of 30 tries at a story-telling competition honoring Greek god Dionysus• Focused on the fates of individual characters and their
struggle for self-knowledge• Wrote 123 plays• Worshipped as a hero after his death• First Tragedy writer to use scene painting
Greek Theater
• Theatron: literally, the “watching place”• Orchestra: the “dancing place”• Skene: scene or backdrop
-Plays were performed in an amphitheatre, with a chorus describing most of the action, and with masks.
-Greek theater was part of a religious festival.-Every citizen attended.
What is drama?
• Drama – a literary composition written to be performed by actors
*drama is from the Greek word for doing, rather than telling
• Central character – tragic hero who suffers from serious misfortune
• This misfortune is connected to the character’s actions
How important was Drama?• In Ancient Greece, theater
flourished between 550-220 B.C.
• Athens, Greece was the center• It was part of a festival called
the Dionysia, which honored the god Dionysus (god of wine and revelry – lively festivals)
• Dionysia was contest for dramatists (3 dramatists presented their plays in 3 days)
• Tragedy literally means “goat song” relating to the Dionysian sacrificial ritual
Different types of Greek Drama
• Comedy• Satyr (short plays played between acts of
tragedies making fun of characters in tragedy)• Tragedy
*Comedy and tragedy were the most popular types of plays in ancient Greece
The “Chorus”• About 15 people *ONLY MEN* (in Oedipus they are citizens
and a Theban elder – town leader)• Trained and costumed at the expense of a wealthy citizen
who chose this job as his way of paying taxes and gaining respect of his community
• Chosen out of the general population as unpaid volunteers• Intensify the emotion and establish a lyric mood through
rhythmic chanting and dance• Their job: to bridge the gap between the audience and the
actors (provide background and commentary)
Masks• Why masks? -enable actors to play several different
roles -help the audience to distinguish the
sex, age, social status, and change in character’s emotions or appearance
-use megaphones to amplify their voices-exaggerated facial features made it
easier for viewers to identify characters
Made of cloth, leather, and wood with animal hair
Famous actors had bejeweled masks
Oedipus the King• Main themes:Fate vs. Free WillSight vs. Blindness
• Play• Tragedy – examines the consequences of an
individual’s actions, the relationship of the people to the gods, and the role fate plays in life
• Main characters:Oedipus (king of Thebes)Creon (brother of Jocasta)ChorusTiresias (blind prophet)Jocasta (queen, wife of Oedipus)
Dramatic Irony
• Oedipus the King revolves around two different unsuccessful attempts to change the course of fate
• Dramatic Irony: occurs when the reader or audience knows something important that a character does not know
• Why?-adds to enjoyment to literary work, much as one
might enjoy knowing a secret in real life