Life Stage Review Excercise *You

Life Stage Review

Excercise

*You may type directly onto the exam form. Just add more space by hitting enter as needed to complete your answers.

(100 pts. Total, 5 questions, 20 points each )

Essay questions -- Please answer each question as completely as you can, utilizing examples from the text to support your views. You do not need to construct a full essay with an intro and conclusion -- instead, focus on answering the question with well-developed paragraphs. It is doubtful that you will answer the questions in only1 paragraph. You must decide when you feel you have fully answered the question. Outside research is not required.

Oedipus -- Is the play trying to encourage people to pay more attention to the gods, including the power of fate in mortals' lives, or is it encouraging them to assert their own wills? Be specific.

Oedipus is part of a series of plays that are based on a Greek Myth about a man who fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father, marry his mother, and bring disaster to his city and father. The myth contains such powerful archetypes that it was even used by psychologist Sigmund Freud to illustrate a particular complex. It seems that the story is saying that fate (or we can read the impact of the Gods) cannot be changed regardless of asserting extraordinary will against prophecy.

Oedipus is part of the tragic hero and much of what happens in the play is because of events that have already occurred. . Essentially, Oedipus' father, King Laius, learns from an oracle that he will be killed by his son. Laius orders Queen Jocasta to kill the baby Oedipus but must give the task to a servant when she cannot bring herself to commit infanticide. Instead, the servant leaves the baby outside to let the Gods decide what will become of him. He is eventually given to the King of Corinth who was childless. Hitting adolescence, Oedipus also consults an oracle who tells him he will mate with his own mother and kill his father. In order to avoid this, Oedipus leaves Corinth, thinking he will protect his parents from the prophecy. On his way from Corinth to Thebes, Oedipus has an argument with a chariot driver regarding the right of way, a fight ensues, and Oedipus kills the other man. Oddly, the other driver was Laius, his real father, thus fulfilling part of the prophecy. Continuing his trip, Oedipus solves the infamous riddle of the Sphinx -- "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?" Oedipus replies: "Man; crawling as an infant, upright in middle age, and needs a cane in old age." The distraught Sphinx commits suicide and Oedipus is hailed as the savior of Thebes, given wealth and power, and the hand of Queen Dowager Jocasta (his real mother), although at this point no one knows this. The prophecy is thus fulfilled.