Oedipus Rex Study Guide Questions And Answers Pdf

[Honorato Overmyer]

Mostpeople assume that students in most AP classes "get it" more easily than in most other general education classes. While this may be true for some students, many students struggle in my AP Language and Literature class. Students are often in these classes because they are motivated and they do the work, but this doesn't always mean that they have the skills to analyze literature. It is often the first time students have had to do this, rather than just following along with the plot. It can also be a struggle to notice symbolism, themes, and other literary devices writers use to deliver their messages. Students may become frustrated with an author's diction or the use of symbolic language that sometimes purposely obscures the message. That said, most AP students are excited at the prospect of gaining the skills required to analyze literature because they will need them to be able to pass the AP exam at the end of the year.

At the end of the first semester in AP Language and Literature, students read the play Oedipus Rex by the Greek tragedian Sophocles. Oedipus Rex is an outstanding example of a Greek tragedy, a genre that many of my students are unfamiliar with. Throughout the year we work on characterization, the use of literary devices and their purpose in diverse texts, and analytical essay writing, among other skills. Because Oedipus Rex is the third text we look at in the year, students have had some practice in honing these skills, but are still struggling to read more deeply than the plot action.

My AP Literature is a class of 32 students at Oceana High School in Pacifica, California. It's a small high school of around 650 students, and our staff is a supportive and collaborative group. For some reason, our school is not generally subjected to district curriculum demands, so we have the freedom to make our own, keeping a close eye on standards and the Common Core, of course. OHS is structured on a block schedule with three 100-minute classes each day. I see my classes every other day, and that fact may affect the way I plan and lay out classroom activities.

I get to know many of the students I have in AP Literature the year before, in an advisory class. I therefore know them fairly well before I teach them in AP. This will be the first AP class for all of them, and I know that many of them are fairly well-prepared because of our strong Humanities program. My AP students are like many other classes, however. Some of them like to speak up in class, and some are extremely quiet. This is understandable because many students are intimidated by an AP class as well as self-conscious about their own ideas. My challenge will be to achieve a balance for both types of students so that everyone's voice is heard and even the shy students become used to sharing ideas.

In ancient Greece, the chorus was a very important part of Greek tragedies, if not the most important part. Daniels and Scully, authors of What is Really Going on in Sophocles' Theban Plays, say that "no feature of Greek tragedy is more intractable than the chorus." 1 Students need to know and understand why this is. It's not something that translates to students simply by reading the text. If students are able to understand the importance of the chorus before they even begin reading, they will be more engaged as they read. This will lead to better understanding of the meaning of the chorus, which is essential to interpreting the text. I want to focus this unit almost entirely on the role and function of the chorus as well as the message it gives the reader (or viewer) throughout the drama. This is an important way to read (or view) a tragedy, especially nowadays, because we interpret it very differently from the way in which the ancient Greeks did. For ancient Greeks, unlike my students, the chorus' role was an obvious one, and although the language was always in a formal dialect, it wasn't difficult to understand the chorus' message. 2

I have found that my students like looking at images in my classes, be they video, photos, paintings or cartoons. Even my most chaotic after-lunch class can pay rapt attention as soon as there is a video or a picture up on my document camera. I think it's important to take advantage of their engagement with almost anything visual and use images in my unit to engage my students. I'll be using paintings of scenes in Greek tragedies as well as production stills in order to help students visualize the play instead of simply reading it.

One of the issues for students that keeps them from gleefully jumping headfirst into the text is the form of the chorus. Because the chorus (and the whole play for that matter; the chorus, however, is more obscure) is written in verse, sometimes students struggle with its meaning. If students know the structure of the chorus and the conventions of the chorus and Greek theatre in general, the purpose and the meaning will be easier to understand. Definitions of words like strophe and antistrophe that will also help them understand form and function.

Students complain that it's difficult for them to relate to the issues that Oedipus faces. Additionally, because this play was written and performed starting all the way back in the sixth century BCE, it can be understandably difficult for students to imagine seeing it live. This can be difficult even for scholars, simply because we don't have a lot of evidence to draw from. It is also difficult to disconnect students from their prior knowledge of Oedipus Rex, which can sometimes get in the way of seeing what's going on in the play. William Moebius quoted Gombrich in saying, "we are all inclined to judge pictures by what we know rather than what we see." 3 Throughout this unit I will be using strategies and activities to encourage students to do close reading of the text and let go of previous notions of the tragedy Oedipus Rex.

We do know quite a bit about how plays were staged and what happened on the stage, and it's important for students to be able to connect it with something they have experience with. To this end, I've been told by an expert in the field, Joe Roach, that choruses from Broadway musicals have a lot in common with the chorus in Greek tragedies, mainly in their look and actions; specifically the song "Oklahoma!" in the musical Oklahoma! 4 is very much how a chorus would look and behave. 5 Analyzing that performance and then comparing and contrasting it with the chorus from Oedipus will give students a frame of reference to come back to over and over, as well as a way to start imagining what a Greek tragedy would look like, a process that is key to understanding the message.

My objective in teaching this unit is to give students a solid understanding of the role and function of the chorus in Oedipus Rex. I want them to be able to discuss the story and the messages therein and be able to analyze the differences in the ways in which we read and interpret the play and the ways in which it was interpreted by ancient Greeks. Before any discussion can happen, students need to understand the chorus and its role and meaning. My hope is that once they have more background information as well as the chance to compare and contrast ancient and modern choruses, each one of them will have a platform to start a discussion from.

Part of this discussion should be focused on looking at the play from the viewpoint of the ancient Greeks. This objective is important for students because there are many ways to view this play, and I want them to be able to look for more than just one way to interpret it. Although the AP exam is what we are ostensibly preparing for, I believe that looking at the text from different points of view will prepare them for college.

I also want students to be able to use this background knowledge and the class discussions to be able to analyze the play in essay form. A big part of the AP Literature course is timed writing in preparation for the AP exam at the end of the year, so I want students to practice timed writes as well as other writing strategies.

Tragic drama began in Athens, Greece, in the sixth century BCE. 6 Performances of tragedies were a special occasion and always were planned to take place on festival days celebrating the Greek god Dionysus; these performances, however, were not religious. 7 A tragedy is always written in verse. 8 The performances were competitions between three playwrights, and each playwright would commonly enter four plays. These plays didn't need to relate to one another in any way, except that they all had to be tragedies. Sophocles won second-place when he wrote and produced Oedipus Rex. 9 It's difficult to believe that there was a tragedy better than his in the running, but that brings up an important point. There is evidence that thousands of tragedies were written, but we have manuscripts for only thirty-two in existence today. These tragedies have been widely read and performed over the last two thousand years. 10 This information will show students the stark contrast of ancient Greek tragedy to our modern day understanding of theatre and its purpose.

Tragedy is a specific type of drama, and it has very specific characteristics. There could only be three actors on the stage at one time, and the chorus was made up of twelve to fifteen people (Sophocles raised the number to fifteen). Only men could act in tragedies (or any Greek performance, for that matter). Tragedies were written in verse, and actors would either say or sing their lines. The chorus usually sang and danced between actors' lines. 13 In ancient Greece, the playwright was a choreographer and a composer in addition to being a playwright. He choreographed the dances for the chorus as well as composing the music that the chorus sang. 14 (add citation) Unlike today, when a playwright or a screenwriter will do only the writing and leave the music and movement to someone else or more likely to many others, the Greek playwright did all of these jobs, and he did them all at the same time, since the movements and the tempo of the song depended on the words the chorus was singing. The only musical accompaniments were the aulos, which is a double-reeded instrument, 15 and sometimes a harp-type instrument.

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