Oedipus Rex Research Paper

Themes & proposition The classical play Oedipus Rex, was written by Sophocles, although not entirely made up by Sophocles. “The story of Oedipus was well known to the public when Sophocles produced the play.” (Burkert, 9) This was a tragic story, and it was of a high importance to Greek people, and Sophocles decided to write it down into a script. Oedipus Rex is a tale that provokes contemplation of fate and freewill. The characters in this story do what they think will protect them from their unfortunate fate; Laius and Jocasta send their son to die, Oedipus leaves his ‘parents’ Polybus and Merope to prevent himself from murdering who he thinks his father could be. However, no matter what the characters have done in the past to hopefully

The original proposition of this play was to teach people that you cannot escape fate, and that you should do what is expected of you. Oedipus teaches us that our destiny cannot be changed, just as it did for Oedipus, everything that is supposed to happen will happen. what is meant to be, will be. This mentality still exists today to some extent, “What’s meant to be will always find a way.” (Yearwood, 1991) This way of thinking can be comforting in a way, to know that there is nothing you can do to change where you’re supposed to be in your life. I think this is still a very important lesson to teach to audiences of all generations. In my production of Oedipus Rex I would like to keep some of that sense of the original proposition, as it is still a relevant topic today. However I would need ensure that the play is performed in a more modern way, it is unlikely that audiences would understand the story as well as they might with big classical Greek theatre masks and classical Greek acting. My cast would be dressed in a representation of tradition Greek clothing, and the production would be preformed in english to make it accessible for anglophones. My production will play with the powers of freewill and fate, in a way that a contemporary audience can more