Sunday, April 12, 2009

10B Homework

In the comments section of this post, I have put the answers to numbers 17 and 18 of the Oedipus handout. It is your responsibility to put these answers in your notebooks by Tuesday.

On Tuesday, we will be working on finishing our summary of The Raven. Read over the poem and what you have written down so far-- in the beginning of class, we will be verbally summarizing the previous stanzas and the winners will get a good prize, so study hard for this!
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Miss Jones said...

17. On pages 186-187, the chorus sings their second choral ode. What is the inner conflict that the chorus sings about? How does the chorus resolve their conflict in their mind?
The chorus is conflicted because of the words that Tiresias has spoken against Oedipus—they cannot decide between what they know of Oedipus (that he rescued them from the Sphinx and that he seems to be a good king) and the horrible thing that Tiresias has said about him. They finally decide that they will not believe the charges that Tiresias has made until they are proven beyond a doubt. They decide that they will trust in what they saw when Oedipus defeated the Sphinx and not convict him until they are absolutely 100% sure of his guilt. (187.549-572)

18. Now that it is revealed that Oedipus is the cause of the plague, go back over this passage and find three examples of tragic irony on pages 171-187. After you list these three examples, explain why they are ironic.

“If I’d been present then, there would have been no mystery”—171.249-250—this is ironic because he was actually present then.

Oedipus orders his people to banish the guilty murderer, and to remove him from every part of their life—this is ironic because he is telling them to do this to himself and this is the fate that he suffers in the end. (172.270-275)

Oedipus curses the murderer and wishes that the murderer will lead a life of agony but he is the murderer, so he is cursing himself. (172.280-283)

Oedipus discusses how he and Laius have things in common and how they are almost related since they are married to the same woman— in reality, they are TRULY related since Laius is his father. Oedipus also says “I will fight for him as if he were my father” but Laius truly is his father. (173.294-301)

After Oedipus hears the truth from Tiresias, he is unable to understand and he says to Tiresias “ You’ve lost your power, stone-blind, stone-deaf—senses, eyes blind as stone!” and this is ironic because Oedipus is actually the one who is blind to the truth and deaf to Tiresias’s words. Oedipus is incapable of understanding that he is guilty and he accuses Tiresias of guilt. (181.420-423)

Sunday, April 12, 2009

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