Medea and Oedipus the King

The essay must be at least four pages (Double Spaced) long and must use material from the play(s) you have chosen to support your claims. When giving lines from the play, just put the number of the lines in parentheses after the quotation.

Pick one of these 4 topics…

1. In Oedipus the King, sight and blindness are symbols for knowledge and ignorance. Trace these symbols throughout the play to see how they contribute to the theme of the play. Your paper will need to establish what you feel the theme of the play is. (Be sure to use a complete statement for the theme. A word or phrase, such as “blindness,” is a topic rather than a theme.)

2. Can we say that Medea is a tragic hero? Argue for or against this claim, using the definition of tragic hero from my Keynote Presentation on tragic heroes.

3. Both Oedipus and Medea express great love for their children in their respective plays, but both do great wrong to their children. What type of cautions are we being given about families in these plays? If we want to avoid harm to children, how do we need to conduct ourselves?

4. Creon is present in both the plays. Do a character analysis of him, using information from both plays. Do you see a change in him from one to the other, or does he stay basically consistent as he moves from being second in command to king?