Paper 1: Oedipus the King (worth 75 points) Please consider all portions of the prompt in your essay. Your paper should be at least 1100 words. Please use a readable font and double-space your paper. You must submit it via your account on Turnitin.com (make sure you are correctly registered on the site WELL BEFORE you attempt to submit your paper - see the Syllabus for information). Do not use outside sources; stick to the text of the play, the film assigned for class, and the other readings assigned so far in this course (if they apply). Remember to cite these sources if you quote them, borrow turns of phrase from them, or appropriate ideas directly from them. Limit direct quotations to 2 lines or less per quote. Avoid plot summary. You may use any formal method of citation, but stick to the same method throughout your paper. Paper 1 Prompt Background: Greek tragedies are plays that were intended to reinforce traditional religious values, as ancient Greek society became more and more sophisticated. In Poetics (which is linked from the course main page, if you want to check it out), the philosopher Aristotle discusses poetry (including epic poetry) and theatre, describing the similarities and differences in terms of format, method, and overall purpose. He provides that all artistic representations of life (which present the possibility of what could be real life, without actually describing real events) fulfill humanity's desire to experience and learn. "Though the objects themselves may be painful to see, we delight to view the most realistic representations of them in art... The explanation is to be found in a further fact: to be learning something is the greatest of pleasures not only to the philosopher but also to the rest of mankind, however small their capacity for it; the reason of the delight... is that one is at the same time learning - gathering the meaning of things.” Tragedy in particular should make people feel intensely and think carefully: "A tragedy...is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; it is in a dramatic, not narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions." “Structure of tragedy at its best should be complex, not simple, and that it should represent actions capable of awakening fear and pity.” It should “appeal to our humanity, or awaken pity or fear in us...the well conceived plot will have a change in fortune from prosperity to misery, and it will be due not to depravity, but to some great error." While Greek tragedies are not specifically meant to be character studies, the best tragedies incorporate protagonists whom audiences both respect and identify. Aristotle describes tragedy as being less about a protagonist's character than it is about the way circumstances converge to affect his life: the things that happen to him, and the consequences of the actions he takes in the course of the experi.