Oedipus the King Journal #2 + Discussion Questions

Oedipus Journal #2

Readers are attracted to moments of intensity in a writer’s work. By what means and with what effect have writers in your study offered heightened emotional moments designed to arrest the reader’s attention?

In Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King, there are a number of very emotional and intense scenes. One of these moments is when Oedipus is threatening the shepherd that knows about his real parentage. Oedipus reacts angrily when the shepherd refuses to answer his questions and reveal what he knows about Oedipus’ history. The writer captures the reader’s attention by using a sense of injustice that comes with witnessing the abuse of the elderly person.

Oedipus: “So, you won’t talk willingly-then you’ll talk with pain.”  

Shepherd: “No, dear god, don’t torture an old man”

(1266-1268)

One of the most pitiable and gut-wrenching things that one can see is when an old person is being harassed or man-handled. Sophocles uses this instinct to get the reader to feel pity and even anger when seeing how Oedipus treats the old shepherd. This emotion that is invoked by the writer is one way that the readers attention is kept.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God a very emotional and attention capturing moment is at the end of the story, when Tea Cake who is sick and delirious in his bed I about to shoot Janie.

“The gun came up unsteadily but quickly and leveled at Janie’s breast. She noted that even in his delirium he took good aim….Instinctively Janie’s hand flew behind her on the rifle and brought it around.” (183)

In this scene Hurston uses suspense and the readers desire to see the ending of a story to her advantage. Hurston’s descriptive style and use of vivid and deliberate imagery add an aspect of suspense and makes it seem like the scene is moving in slow motion. This slowing effect allows the reader to visualize every movement and occurrence in their mind as they read and completely captures their attention.

Discussion Questions:

1.) One of the main parts of the plot in Oedipus the King are the fact that he kills his father and commits incest with his mother by sleeping with her. Could this act of incest be something that was prevalent and even normal in Greek society?

2.) There are several instances where characters that are already vulnerable and weak, are taken advantage of or are harassed for their weak traits such as when Oedipus insults the blind prophet and when he tortures the old shepherd. Could the fact that Oedipus himself was a cripple have anything to do with Sophocles life? Could he have had a crippling or weak feature that he felt insecure about?