For Thursday's class, please read Sophocles' Oedipus Rex (either online or in Levi Lind's Ten Greek Plays in Contemporary Translation).Suppose that you have been chosen to play one of the characters in Oedipus Rex. Choose a "special" line for your character (see previous blog instructions for Agamemnon) and explain how you would either build up to that line or build off that line in your performance.
"And now that I am lord,Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife,(And had he not been frustrate in the hope. Of issue, common children of one womb Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me, But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I His blood-avenger will maintain his cause As though he were my sire, and leave no stone Unturned to track the assassin or avenge The son of Labdacus, of Polydore, Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race."
ReplyDeleteThis is a large sequence of lines, but I feel as though this is Oedipus stating his purpose, and his mission. This is Oedipus asserting who he is by giving us his heritage. His character is built around these lines, this is why this is a play, and this is why Oedipus is the focus of this famous Greek tragedy.
Zach Anderson
Annie Merkel
ReplyDeleteThe character I would choose in Oedipus Rex would be Teiresias. He is stated as being the prophet. Teiresias is the one who tells Oedipus that he is the one who killed Laius and therefore needs to be killed. The line that I think best represents Teiresias is on page 125: "Let me go home; it is best for you to bear your burden, and I mine, if you will heed me." I think the Teiresias forms his character around this because he doesn't want to be the one to tell King Oedipus that he is the one who must be slain. Teiresias doesn't want to be the bad messenger, but yet he must.
Sam Merkel
ReplyDelete"When Oedipus had discovered his crimes-the slaying of his father Laius and the marriage of his mother Jocasta- he tore out his eyes and in his blindness fled to Attica and the protection of Theseus." I chose this line because it really paints a picture in your mind of what is going on. Plus I find it odd that a man would pull out his eyes and than flea to Attica while he is blind. Seems to be a pretty rash decision to make, perhaps Oedipus wasn't thinking clearly and made a decision that he regrets doing. Which I am sure many people today still do.
Peter Ryman
ReplyDeleteI will pick the old shepherd/servant that talks with the messenger and Oedipus and tells him about his birth...or rather is forced to tell of it.
"What is that? Why do you ask me this?"
At first when the messenger is questioned and reminded a little bit about the situations, the shepherd isn't really that concerned or unwilling to talk about it. But when they reach a point in the conversation about him (the shepherd) giving the messenger a child to rear as his own, then he becomes resistant and immediately put on the alert to give any other information. I would build off of this line by understanding my character to be relatively normal and calm at the beginning of my debut, a simple bystander just answering the king's questions. But when I would come to this part where they ask me about the boy i had given to the messenger, i would be apprehensive and unwillingly stubborn, almost panicky and wild resisting to utter more without extreme intervention.
If I had to pick a character it would have to be Teiresias, because he is a prophet. My line would have to go with "I shall speak no more." I think it is a good line, because he gets to sound all high and mighty. It's like saying, I'm better then you. Teiresias just seems to be a prophet that has to tell everyone everything, even if he doesn't want to. That is why I choose him.
ReplyDeleteLaura McCowan
I would choose one of oedipus lines on page 19 "you are all sick, and in your sickness none, there is among you as sick as I, for your pain comes to one man alone, to him and to none other, but my soul, groans for the state, for myself, and for you" what else would you ask of a good king to say to his people
ReplyDeleteBrian Johnson
ReplyDeleteI would choose the servant's line on page 144, when he says "Alas, to speak I am on the brink of horror."
I think it is a special line because it is just before Oedipus finally finds out the truth. It is naturally very tense and exciting so I think it would be an easy line to build up to and work off from.
I think by using the proper tone of voice you could really make it effective.
I would choose to be CREON, and my special line would be line 678 on page 133: "You know me not, but these men see me just."
ReplyDeleteThis is the last sentence that CREON speaks to OEDIPUS in the scene with their big argument. This is the climax of the relationship between these characters. Up until this story, we are told that OEDIPUS and CREON are good friends. But during this scene, we see their friendship ripped appart because of OEDIPUS's blind accusations against him. This line shows us that CREON is finally conceding that their friendship is over because OEDIPUS has failed to see to reason.
If I would play CREON, at this moment I would portray him feeling almost sorry for OEDIPUS. CREON realises that OEDIPUS is wrong in this argument but is too stuborn to realise it. CREON knows in the back of his mind that OEDIPUS is going to make himself look like a fool by the end of this whole ordeal, and he would feel sorry for his friend.
Doran Stucky
"No more shall you behold the vils I have suffered and done. Be dark from now on, since you saw before what you should not, and know not what you should." This line was said by the chorus as they quoted what they heard Oedipus say. I think that this line of Oedipus brings together everything that had happened before. Oedipus starts out very determined to find this murderer. But as he learns more and more, from the seer and his wife, he begins to become angry and then scared. He continues to gradually change from one state of emotion to the other until finally, when everything is revealed he falls into deep despair. As a result he feels that he has no use left and wishes that his eyes had never seen what they had seen, or learned what he had learned.
ReplyDeleteJohn Rawerts
"Then had I never come to shed
ReplyDeleteMy father's blood nor climbed my mother's bed;
The monstrous offspring of a womb defiled,
Co-mate of him who gendered me, and child.
Was ever man before afflicted thus,
Like Oedipus."
I chose this line from Oedipus, because even though he is the one speaking he still realizes what great atrocities he has inadvertently commited and goes as far as to mock and refer to himself in the third person. The lines before this are basically him going back and forth with the chorus, well to build it up I would get louder in volume with each line, allowing the chorus to almost mimic me, and then finally get to this line and then let it die down again afterwards.
Ruth Wilson
ReplyDelete"Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood.
This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state." This is Creon really early in the play, but seems to sum up the story.
"apollo it was, apollo, friends
ReplyDeletewho brought to pass these evil, evil woes of mind.
the hand of no one struck my eyesbut wretched me
for why shoud i see
when nothing sweet there is to see with sight?"
i chose this line spoken by oedipus becosue i think it clearly shows how disgusted he is with the situation. that this prophecy had been played out through him and what he took joy in was now ruined. it shows how his world fell apart around him.
-allison rademacher
I thought that Oedipus had a really intense line right after you find out that he poked his eyes out:
ReplyDelete"Alas, alas, I am grieved! / Where on earth, so wretched, shall I go? / Where does my voice fly through the air, / O Fate, where have you bounded?"
All of his life he had worked towards averting the prophecy that he had recieved when he was young, and yet it still happened exactly as the prophet had told it. All throughout the play he is concerned with finding the truth of the matter, but when he does he realizes how terrible his life has worked out to be.
If I were to choose a character to play it would be Oedipus because he is such a deep and troubled character and goes through so much anguish in this play.
ReplyDeleteThe line that I would choose to build this character around would be on pg. 149, "Do you think the sight of my children would be a joy for me to see, born as they were to me? No, never for these eyes of mine to see." This line, although near the end of the book, really shows the struggles that Oedipus is going through and what it is doing to his mindset. Really puts into perspective how demoralized he really is.
Kirsten Saunders
ReplyDeleteJocasta is a powerful figure in Oedipus and my "special line" would be a comment by Jocasta. She states, "What shoudl man fear, whose life is ruled by fate,/For whom there is clear foreknowledge of nothing?/It is best to live by chance as best you can. This is important, because it implies the power of prophecy and living your life trying to undo a prophetic misfortune. Additionally, this has important historical implications, meaning that nothing in history is inevitable. This a common theme and common source of conflict in greek tragedy.
I think that the line from Creon telling oedipus that the killer of laius the previous ruler is living in thebes and that is why the plague has come to thebes. I think that everything builds off of this line because the rest of the story is trying to find the killer of the previous ruler.
ReplyDeleteJon Evenson
In 1390 line, Oedipus said that “I should be blind and deaf.” I think it is the most special line.
ReplyDeleteBecause it shows his will to compensate his sinful deed with pull out his eyes.
Oedipus tried to escape his fate, and he never expects these results. He acted like that because he could not bear the true, so he said “By the gods, hide me at once outside our land, Or murder me, or hurl me in the sea Where you shall never look on me again. . . Do it. Be not afraid.”
In this line, we can catch his character, he has very noble morality and also he is very stubborn.
I do not know who is the winner in this play, destiny? Or Oedipus? He wanted to change his fate by himself, but the prophecy came true in the end. Likewise, these lines make us think about relation between the fate and human’s will.