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MonkeyNotes-Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
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With Sophocles, it is the innate character of a hero like Oedipus, or
a heroine like Antigone, who initiate the central tragic action. It is
their inner will that determines and dominates the action and shows
how they could not behave in any other fashion. Sophocles rarely
distracts attention from the self-contained world of his plays and
refrains from introducing any extraneous matter. The plot of his
plays is often drawn from a well-known body of Greek myth
familiar to his audience.
Two devices that help develop the plot are 'peripeteia' and
'anagnorisis'. The first is roughly translated as a "reversal of
fortune," but more correctly peripeteia takes place when an action
directed to one end changes its course and brings disaster. For
example, in Oedipus At Colonus, it is difficult to pinpoint the
peripeteia, unless one regards the death of Oedipus as a
catastrophe. On the contrary, here the death of the hero is to be
taken as a sign of salvation. Anagnorisis refers to recognition,
either the self-recognition of a character or the recognition of a
situation by the character. One can discover anagnorisis in
Oedipus' recognition that death awaits him in Colonus. Hence, he
is never diverted from his destined goal of finding liberation from
life no matter what distractions Creon or Polyneices may tempt
him with. There are hardly any improbabilities in the plot of
Oedipus At Colonus to destroy the conviction that these events
could ever have taken place.
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