King Laius Essay

354 Words2 Pages
Oedipus the King Sophocles uses structural and technical conventions, as well as tragedy as a literary genre in his play “Oedipus the King” to both entertain and educate his intended audience. Sophocles’ main technical conventions used throughout the play are stichomythia, anagnorisis, peripetia, ate and catharsis. All of these technical conventions that Sophocles’ use helps entertain educate the audience. Sophocles’ uses these technical conventions through a structure that includes a prologue, parados, episodes, stasimons and an exodus. He uses the prologue to immediately set the background as a priest announces that blight has fallen upon the land and that the purpose is to determine the cause of this plague. Oedipus has already solved the last plague with his super intelligence, “I am Oedipus the world knows my fame” (line and lets all the citizens know he has sent Creon to the oracle which was his brother in law. Creon returns to reveal the plague won’t end until the murderer You must Login to view the entire essay. If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free! of King Laius is driven from the land. This introduces the conflict as Oedipus promises to obey the gods and pledges himself to find and punish the murderer, creating dramatic irony he is unaware that he is the actual murderer and heightens the education of the play by its conclusion. In terms of structure the parados introduces the chorus. They are chanting a prayer to the gods to release Thebes from the pestilence. The ode bears a relation to the main theme of the play which is the plague. The parados allows for the passage of times for the citizens of Thebes to gather and prepare for Oedipus’ next pronouncement. As the ideal spectator, Sophocles’ uses the chorus to educate the audience oh how they should feel or at least view the action. In the first and second episodes’ Oedipus’ opening
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