1. Why does Oedipus suffer more pain than the other citizens of Thebes?
2. Why is there a plague upon the city?
3. Whom does Creon believe responsible and tell Oedipus killed the king?
4. What proclamation does Oedipus make and what curse does he pronounce?
5. What does Teiresias tell Oedipus he will discover this day?
6. What accusation of Creon does Oedipus make?
7. What detail first makes Oedipus worry and believe all is not right?
8. What news does the first messenger bring?
9. What is Jocasta’s attitude toward the oracles when she hears this news?
10. What other news does this messenger share with Oedipus and Jocasta?
11. Synthesis: What does Oedipus think is Jocasta’s motive in asking him to search no further?
12. What information does the second messenger, the herdsman bring?
13. What does Jocasta do to herself? Oedipus to himself?
14. Vocabulary: peripeteia (Greek) = reversal of fortune in either direction; anagnoresis (Gr.) = knowledge in the form of recognition of true circumstances; coming to awareness.
15. Synthesis: Can you briefly identify the passage containing the anagnoresis of Jocasta? Of Oedipus?
16. Synthesis: How are images of light (i.e. sight and knowledge)and darkness (i.e. blindness, ignorance) used in the play?
17. How important is light to the overall meaning of the play?
18. Does use of light and darkness suggest any symmetry or asymmetry in the structure of the play?
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