First Period:

Here is your list for essay topics for THE OEDIPUS TRILOGY:

1. Choose one tragedy and discuss the role of the chorus. Does the chorus change over the course of the play? How does the chorus affect the action?
How does it focus and intensify the audience's responses?

2. In OEDIPUS THE KING, Jocasta, like Oedipus, sees the horror of her identity unfolding. Compare Jocasta to the tragic hero. What are her own ideas about Fate and prophecy? How does she react to her suspicions about Oedipus' birth?
How does her final despair differ from Oedipus?

3. Choose a character who appears in two or more of the plays in THE OEDIPUS TRILOGY, and discuss the similarities and differences in characterization in the plays.

4. As a prophet, Teiresias speaks for the gods and for Fate. How does the character of Teiresias function dramatically in OEDIPUS THE KING AND ANTIGONE?

5.Discuss the role of Fate in THE OEDIPAL TRILOGY. Discuss the adversarial position Oedipus takes with Teiresias, the oracle of the gods, in OEDIPUS THE KINGS, and his subsequent position near the end of his life at Colonus. Discuss Sophocles' probable intent in this change of Oedipus's views regarding Fate.

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