Senior English

Mr. Rigler

Close reading, explication, and Oedipus the King

For today you read the end of Oedipus the King and wrote an explication of a passage you selected.  Today you’ll work with a small group to examine and discuss the end of the play.  

To guide your conversation, you’ll first look for key lines over the final 20 pages of the play.  In this context by “key line” I am referring to a transitional moment in the plot or a marked shift in tone.  We saw this happen last time as we discussed the dialogues Oedipus had with Creon and Jocasta.

Key line #1:

What changed:

Key line #2:

What changed:

Key line #3:

What changed:

Key line #4:

What changed:

Key line #5:

What changed:

Next you’ll look for concepts and themes raised by the play.  Sophocles, the author of the first two plays we’ll read, was a key innovator of dramatic structure, as noted in the introduction:

Sophocles may therefore be said to have invented character in an art form which         had previously been concerned mainly with theme.  ... This shift of emphasis from mass spectacle to individual characterization reflects the growing awareness of         human personality and motivation. (vi)

How do we identify concepts and themes in a piece of literature?  We’ll pause to discuss this as a class before you return to your group work.

Concept / theme #1:

Where we saw this:

Concept / theme #2:

Where we saw this:

Concept / theme #3:

Where we saw this: