Dramatic Techniques in Oedipus the King

1. Dramatic
Techniques in
Oedipus The
King
Muhammad Zameer Nawaz

2. Definition
Devices used for constructing the plot and
bringing out the theme and effect of the drama.

3. Sophocles Dramatic Techniques
1. The use of the chorus;
2. The use of a known myth
3. The use of thematic messages and tragic songs,
4. the unities of time-place-and-action,
5. Dramatic Irony
6. flashback,
7. extreme economy of dialogue and action,

4. The three Unities by Aristotle
 Unity of Time: All the action of the play took place within
twenty-four hours, in continuous time. Dialogue and the
Chorus provided background information.
 Unity of Place: All of the action was limited to a single setting
 Unity of Subject: single main plot no sub-plots.
 Did Oedipus the King observe these unities?

5. OEDIPUS and The Tragic Hero
• The tragic hero’s misfortunes are not caused by vice or depravity
- but by some great error.
• The error makes him human to the audience; thus, he arouses
fear and pity in us because we can see ourselves in his place.
• We - the audience - are able to sympathize with the protagonist
because he is imperfect, just like us, and his suffering exceeds
what he deserves.
• This sympathetic identification makes catharsis possible.

6. • Consider Oedipus as a tragic hero…
– Do you believe he is a pawn of FATE? How much blame does he bear for his situation?
– Do you feel fear & pity for him?
– Does the play move you to a cathartic response?
• Scholars have been arguing for centuries over an essential question: what is
Oedipus's hamartia, often called a tragic flaw?
• Aristotle tells us in his Poetics that every tragic hero is supposed to have one of
these, which causes the hero's downfall.
• Aristotle also cites Oedipus as the best example ever of a tragic hero.
• Why then is it so unclear to generation after generation, just what Oedipus's
hamartia ????????

7. Dramatic Irony
When the audience understand the implication and
meaning of a situation on stage, or what is being
said, but the characters do not.
Greek audience were already familiar with the plots,
taken from well-known myths.

8. Examples
Oedipus:
'I did not think it fit that I should hear
of this from messengers but came myself,
I Oedipus whom all men call the Great.‘ (08)
Oedipus states:
I command all to drive him from their homes,
since he is our pollution, as the oracle
of Pytho’s god proclaimed him now to me. (243)
Since I am now the holder of his office,
and have his bed and wife that once was his,
and had his line not been unfortunate
we would have children in common—(but fortune leaped
upon his head)—because of all these things,
I fight in his defense as for my father, (265)
Oedipus to Tiresias
Your life is one long night so that you cannot
hurt me or any other who sees the light (375)

9. Flashback
 Definition:
– a device used in literature to present an interruption in the continuity of a story,
play, movie, etc. by the narration or portrayal of some earlier episode.
 Oedipus the King:
– The plot, in fact, goes backward in terms of knowledge, along with the
exploration or investigation into the truths about the plague and then the birth and
background of the hero Oedipus; though, of course, the dramatic action goes
forward.
• Oedipus 'parentage, murder of Laius, marriage,

10. Symbols
 Triple Crossroad
 killed King Laius at a place “where three roads meet,” or a triple crossroad.
 Typically, crossroads symbolize a choice to be made. Yet because the murder of Laius occurred in
the distant past. Oedipus’s choice has already been made, and so the triple crossroads becomes a
symbol not of choice but of fate.
 Swollen ankles–
 As an adult, still limps from a childhood injury to his ankles. This limp, and his very name—
which means “swollen ankle,” and which was given to him because of a childhood ankle injury—
are clues to his own identity that Oedipus fails to notice. As such, Oedipus’s ankles become
symbols of his fate. His ankles, literally, are the marks of that fate.

11. Motifs
• Sight and blindness
– OEDIPUS
• It has, but not for you; it has no strength
for you because you are blind in mind and ears
as well as in your eyes. (370)
Tiresieas
• You have your eyes but see not where you are in
evil, nor where you live, nor whom you live with. (413-14)

12. Imagery
• references to light and darkness to predict the future
– The priest says at the beginning: "All the house of Kadmos is laid
waste; all emptied, and all darkened”
– Oedipus promises Creon: “Then once more I must bring what is
dark to light.”
Foreshadowing
– Teiresias tells Oedipus that it is he who is blind
– “But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind. You
cannot see the wretchedness of your life”

13. References
• https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/globaldrama/dramatic-
technique-in-oedipus-rex.html