Potential Topics for Final Essay

English 1102 - final exam: 12/12/2012 - 10:30-12:30 in our classroom

Please note: these are topics that could be addressed on the final essay; I WILL BE ADDING TO THIS LIST as we discuss the play in class. Do come back to this post from time to time, for clarification and to see what new topics have been added.For the sake of understanding, Oedipus Rex  (meaning Oedipus the King) will refer to the drama; Oedipus will refer to the character

There is constant word play concerning "sight" throughout the drama. Many times the dramatist, Sophocles, uses deliberate puns dealing with "seeing" or with "sight" to emphasize the two-fold blindness of Oedipus vs. the blind seer and the oracle at Delphi, as well as reference to the god of light, Apollo. Discuss the use of this word play as Oedipus moves from one form of blindness to another. 

Aristotle wrote of specific traits that he believed a tragedy should have. Which of those characteristics are illustrated in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex? Discuss both the characteristics and the examples in the play.
Greek society attended performances because the plays reinforced their own values and beliefs. For example, Greek culture upheld and revered the superiority of the gods, believed that man could not escape his destiny, and relied on moderation and reason to govern his life. In what way does Oedipus serve as a cautionary tale to the Greeks who held these beliefs?

Whether Oedipus falls due to his fate, as it was foretold by ancient prophecies or because of his own flawed character, he does display evidence of arrogance in regard to the gods and to their prophecies, anger toward those who would be his allies, and obsession in his desire to discover the truth, though it could mean his doom. Discuss these flaws and how each contributes to the fall of Oedipus.

The audience attending the festivals and the plays were very well aware of the myth or story of Oedipus. It was well known that Oedipus was cursed, that he would kill his father, marry his mother, and live the remainder of his life in misery. Nevertheless, Oedipus was a popular drama, in large part because it did reinforce the beliefs of the audience. It also entertained the audience who would "catch" words or phrases that the characters would presumably not know. This form of irony is called dramatic irony. Using specific examples from the play, discuss the use of dramatic irony.

Does Oedipus bring about the fulfillment of his destiny by his own hand--or is he simply cursed, from the day he is born to inadvertently bring his own doom? Does Oedipus become a blind beggar (essentially), who wanders, homeless, forlorn because he was fated by birth--or does the former king use his own free-will into play and fall from grace due to his own actions.  Is it FATE or FREE-WILL or both?  EXPLAIN.

The Story of Oedipus

The ancient Greek audience, attending the performance of Sophocles' Oedipus, would already know the plot and its outcome, just as we know that a movie based on the Titanic will end with the iceberg gouging a rip in the hull of the ship, and the ship sinking into the North Atlantic. Like today's audiences, people in ancient Greece still found themselves fascinated by the tragedy of Oedipus and recounted the myth so often that it is still well known. As such, it is important for YOU, as an audience, to know the story to fully appreciate the drama:

Basics of the Myth (from wikipedia):

Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. After having been married some time without children, Laius consulted the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Oracle prophesied that any son born to Laius would kill him. In an attempt to prevent this prophecy's fulfillment, when Jocasta indeed bore a son, Laius had his ankles pinned together so that he could not crawl; Jocasta then gave the boy to a servant to abandon ("expose") on the nearby mountain. However, rather than leave the child to die of exposure, as Laius intended, the sympathetic servant passed the baby onto a shepherd from Corinth and then to another shepherd.

The infant Oedipus eventually came to the house of Polybus, king of Corinth and his queen, Merope, who adopted him as they were without children of their own. Little Oedipus/Oidipous was named after the swelling from the injuries to his feet and ankles. 

After many years of being son of the king and queen of Corinth, Oedipus was told by a drunk that he had in fact been adopted by them. Oedipus confronted his parents with the news, but they denied every word. Oedipus sent word for the same Oracle in Delphi his birth parents consulted. The Oracle did not tell him he was son of the king and queen of Thebes, but instead informed him he was destined to murder his father and marry his mother. In his attempt to avoid the fate predicted by the Oracle, he decided to not return home to Corinth. Oedipus decided to travel all the way to Thebes, as it was near Delphi.

As Oedipus traveled, he came to a place where three roads crossed each other. There he encountered a chariot driven by his birth-father, King Laius. They fought over who had the right to go first and Oedipus killed Laius in self-defense, unwittingly fulfilling part of the prophecy. The only witness of the King's death was a slave who fled from a caravan of slaves also traveling on the road at the time.

Continuing his journey to Thebes, Oedipus encountered a Sphinx, who would stop all travelers to Thebes and ask them a riddle. If the travelers were unable to answer her correctly, they would be killed and eaten; if they were successful, they would be free to continue on their journey. The riddle was: "What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?". Oedipus answered: "Man: as an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and; in old age, he uses a 'walking' stick". Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle correctly and, having heard Oedipus' answer, the Sphinx was astounded and inexplicably killed herself by throwing herself into the sea, freeing Thebes from her harsh rule.

The people of Thebes gratefully appointed Oedipus as their king and gave him the recently widowed Queen Jocasta's hand in marriage. The marriage of Oedipus to Jocasta fulfilled the rest of the prophecy. Oedipus and Jocasta had four children. 

Many years after the marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta, a plague of infertility struck the city of Thebes; crops no longer grew on the fields and women did not bear children. Oedipus, in his hubris, asserted that he would end the pestilence. He sent Creon, Jocasta's brother, to the Oracle at Delphi, seeking guidance. When Creon returned, Oedipus heard that the murderer of the former King Laius must be found and either be killed or exiled. Creon also suggested that they try to find the blind prophet, Tiresias. In a search for the identity of the killer, Oedipus followed Creon's suggestion and sent for Tiresias, who warned him not to seek Laius' killer. In a heated exchange, Tiresias was provoked into exposing Oedipus himself as the killer, and the fact that Oedipus was living in shame because he did not know who his true parents were. Oedipus angrily blamed Creon for the false accusations, and the two proceeded to argue fervently. Jocasta entered and tried to calm Oedipus by telling him the story of her first-born son and his supposed death. Oedipus became nervous as he realized that he may have murdered Laius and so brought about the plague. Suddenly, a messenger arrived from Corinth with the news that King Polybus had died. Oedipus was relieved concerning the prophecy for it could no longer be fulfilled if Polybus, whom he considered his birth father, was now dead.

Still, he knew that his mother was still alive and refused to attend the funeral at Corinth. To ease the tension, the messenger then said that Oedipus was, in fact, adopted. Jocasta, finally realizing that he was her son, begged him to stop his search for Laius' murderer. Oedipus misunderstood the motivation of her pleas, thinking that she was ashamed of him because he might have been born of a slave. Jocasta then went into the palace where she hanged herself. Oedipus sought verification of the messenger's story from the very same herdsman who was supposed to have left Oedipus to die as a baby. From the herdsman, Oedipus learned that the infant raised as the adopted son of Polybus and Merope was the son of Laius and Jocasta. Thus, Oedipus finally realized in great agony that so many years ago, at the place where the three roads met, he had killed his own father, King Laius, and subsequently married his mother, Jocasta.

Oedipus went in search of Jocasta and found she had killed herself. Using the pin from a brooch he took off Jocasta's gown, Oedipus stabbed his own eyes out, and was then exiled.

Greek Tragedy

                Aristotle's The Poetics (4^th century B.C.) carefully analyzed what makes tragedy such a powerful event.  For Aristotle, the most important element of tragic drama was the unique experience of CATHARSIS, the arousing of the specific emotions of pity and fear so as to dispel or purge them in the audience. Modern movie-goers who cry when the Titanic sinks for the umpteenth time also experiences a catharsis. Tragedy is defined by its emotional effect on the audience.

I.  The ideal plot of a tragedy should contain the following characteristics:

     A.   Unity of time, place and action:  action extends over no more than a day or two and occurs in no more than one city and its surrounding countryside.    The concentration of an action within a relatively small location and time period produced a stronger emotional response.

     B. A plot structured on principles which strengthen the emotions of "pity" and "fear:

                1.  Reversal (there must be a change of fortune in the main character)

                     a.  Simple:  character experiences a turn of fortune from happiness to

                          misery or vice versa

                     b.  Complex:  the hero, seeking happiness, brings about his own destruction (ironic reversal)

                 2.  Discovery (or recognition)

                     a.  of someone's identity or true nature 

                     b.  of one's own identity or true character 

                     c.  of the nature of the gods and the universe 

                3.  The ideal climax, turning point, combines ironic reversal and discovery in a

                     single action.

II.  The Tragic Hero's Characteristics

     A.  He or she must be of noble blood and admirable. He is not only noble by birth, but noble in terms of his actions. This provides the story with dignity.   (The tragedy of commoners/peasants did not interest Aristotle).  It also generates the feeling in the audience that if tragedy can happen to the advantaged, it can  happen to anyone, thus producing "fear".

     B.  Initially, the hero must be neither better or worse morally than most people.

          This produces "fear" because the hero is imperfect like us, and we can identify

          with him.  It also produces "pity" because if the hero were perfect or totally good,

          we would be outraged by his fate.  If he were completely evil, we would feel like

          he had gotten what he deserved.

     C.  The tragic hero meets his fate because of a "tragic flaw".  The tragic flaw is not

          a defect in character, but an error in judgment of the kind we all make.  Since we

          all make mistakes, this generates "fear" in that we recognize our own potential for

          tragedy by committing the same errors.  It also generates "pity" because we do not

          blame the hero for his tragic fate.

 III.  Catharsis, or purgation

       A.  "Pity" is aroused for the hero as he meets his fate.

       B.  "Fear" is aroused since we may meet a similar fate as the hero.

       C.  These two emotions are dispelled eventually.  We sympathize with the hero

             and his tragic circumstances, but we are not overcome with pity or fear for him.

                 We learn a lesson from the story, our pity and fear disappear, and that is

                 a cathartic experience.

Richard Cory Redux

Richard Cory by Simon and Garfunkel

You Tube Video

They say that Richard Cory owns one half of this whole town,
With political connections to spread his wealth around.
Born into society, a banker's only child,
He had everything a man could want: power, grace, and style.

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be
Richard Cory.
The papers print his picture almost everywhere he goes:
Richard Cory at the opera, Richard Cory at a show.
And the rumor of his parties and the orgies on his yacht!
Oh, he surely must be happy with everything he's got.

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be
Richard Cory.

He freely gave to charity, he had the common touch,
And they were grateful for his patronage and thanked him very much,
So my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read:
"Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head."

But I work in his factory
And I curse the life I'm living
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be,
Oh, I wish that I could be
Richard Cory.

For Wednesday, November 14

WEDNESDAY:  Quiz over terms in poetry, along with questions concerning one of the poems we have covered in class.  If we have not covered it, it will NOT be on the quiz.  This will count as 10% of your grade from poetry.

Our first day back from Thanksgiving, you will be asked to analyze a poem you have not yet seen. This will count as 10% of your grade from poetry. In order to analyze the  poem, be sure you can answer  questions on pages 17-19 AND that you can identify any shift that occurs in the poem, where it occurs, and how it affects the theme or meaning of the poem.  The best way to prepare for this would be to practice--rather than read analyses from Wikipedia or elsewhere.

Please understand: this is not a question of how much talent  you have in interpreting poetry or understanding poetry; this has more to do with your ability and skill in grasping the meaning in groups of lines that function together as a unit. For examples, essays, stories, fiction and non-fiction--all have paragraphs composed of sentences. Poems have groups of lines that function together, just as paragraphs do; often these lines are groups together in stanzas; other poets who use free verse choose to group their lines together differently, sometimes from sentence to sentence.  If you get "stuck" in trying to determine the meaning of a poem, consider writing the poem out as prose. This doesn't always work, but many times you will find that a poem is simply the way the poet has chosen to break an idea into lines so that certain words or ideas are emphasized.

If you are absent for either of these in-class assignments, your grade will be a zero.

The remainder of our class time will be spent reading and discussing a brief introduction to drama and the ageless drama, Oedipus by Sophocles.
We will begin Oedipus the Wednesday after we return from Thanksgiving and our final exam will be an in-class essay over the play. 

Keep in mind:

• two grades over poetry = 20% of your grade
• there still will be a grade for class participation = 10%
• the final essay = 20%

Poems for Study

Read and consider the following poem by Jane Kenyon:

Let Evening Come

By Jane Kenyon

Let the light of late afternoon

shine through chinks in the barn, moving   

up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing   

as a woman takes up her needles   

and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned   

in long grass. Let the stars appear

and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.   

Let the wind die down. Let the shed   

go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop   

in the oats, to air in the lung   

let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t   

be afraid. God does not leave us   

comfortless, so let evening come.

Compare and contrast Paul Lawrence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" with Lennon & McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby"

Eleanor Rigby lyricsSongwriters: Mccartney, Paul; Lennon, John;

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice
In the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream

Waits at the window, wearing the face
That she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie, writing the words
of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near

Look at him working, darning his socks
In the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby, died in the church
And was buried along with her name
Nobody came

Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt
From his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people
(Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
(Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all belong?

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~ Mary Oliver ~

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save. 

~ Mary Oliver ~

Keeping in mind that a journey is not only literal, but figurative, not for a single day or moment, but a lifetime, consider the following poem by Whitman:

There was a Child went Forth 

by Walt Whitman

THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.
The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,	5
And the Third-month lambs, and the sow’s pink-faint litter, and the mare’s foal, and the cow’s calf,
And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,
And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there—and the beautiful curious liquid,
And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads—all became part of him.
The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part of him;	10
Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden,
And the apple-trees cover’d with blossoms, and the fruit afterward, and wood-berries, and the commonest weeds by the road;
And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-house of the tavern, whence he had lately risen,
And the school-mistress that pass’d on her way to the school,
And the friendly boys that pass’d—and the quarrelsome boys,	15
And the tidy and fresh-cheek’d girls—and the barefoot negro boy and girl,
And all the changes of city and country, wherever he went.
His own parents,
He that had father’d him, and she that had conceiv’d him in her womb, and birth’d him,
They gave this child more of themselves than that;	20
They gave him afterward every day—they became part of him.
The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table;
The mother with mild words—clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger’d, unjust;
The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,	25
The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture—the yearning and swelling heart,
Affection that will not be gainsay’d—the sense of what is real—the thought if, after all, it should prove unreal,
The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time—the curious whether and how,
Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks?
Men and women crowding fast in the streets—if they are not flashes and specks, what are they?	30
The streets themselves, and the façades of houses, and goods in the windows,
Vehicles, teams, the heavy-plank’d wharves—the huge crossing at the ferries,
The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset—the river between,
Shadows, aureola and mist, the light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown, three miles off,
The schooner near by, sleepily dropping down the tide—the little boat slack-tow’d astern,	35
The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping,
The strata of color’d clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint, away solitary by itself—the spread of purity it lies motionless in,
The horizon’s edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore mud;
These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day.

POETRY: STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW

Poetic terms in the book--pages 11-20

Diction:

• Connotation vs. Denotation

Figurative Language:

• Literal vs. figurative
• metaphor
• simile
• personification
• allusion
• symbol--note difference between public & contextual symbol
• rhyme
• alliteration
• assonance
• rhythm
• imagery

Terms from questions on p.17-19:

• speaker & audience
• setting
• theme
• POV
• structure & shift
• response

General Literary Terms still in effect for poetry:

• tone
• mood

Poems we will definitely read & discussion, assuming time allows:
"When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"
"Richard Cory"
* "The Journey"
* "Wild Geese"
"Not Waving But Drowning"
"Those Winter Sundays"
* Let Evening Come"
"We Wear the Mask" & * Eleanor Rigby"

Frost:

• "Birches"
• "After Apple Picking"
• "Design"

Emily Dickinson

• "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died"
• "Apparently with no surprise"
• "Much Madness is divinest Sense"