Oedipus, the King - Sophocles

Oedipus, the King

The tragedy, “Oedipus the King” unfolds as a murder mystery, a political thriller, and a psychological thriller (who-dun-it). Throughout this mythic story of patricide and incest, Sophocles emphasises the irony of a man determined to track down, expose, and punish an assassin, who turns out to be a culprit in the assassination of the king.

As the play opens, the citizens of Thebes beg their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that threatens to destroy the city, Thebes. Oedipus has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle to learn what to do.

On his return, Creon announces that the oracle instructs them to find the murderer of Laius, the king who ruled Thebes before Oedipus. The discovery and punishment of the murderer will end the plague. At once Oedipus sets about to solve the murder mystery of king Laius.

Summoned by the king, the blind prophet Tiresias at first refuses to speak, but finally accuses Oedipus himself of killing Laius. Oedipus mocks and rejects the prophet angrily, ordering him to leave, but not before Tiresias hints darkly of an incestuous marriage and a future of blindness, infamy, and wandering.

Oedipus attempts to gain advice from Jocasta, the queen; she encourages him to ignore prophecies, explaining that a prophet once told her that Laius, her husband, would die at the hands of their son. According to Jocasta, the prophecy did not come true because the baby died, abandoned, and Laius himself was killed by a band of robbers at a crossroads.

Oedipus becomes distressed by Jocasta's remarks because just before he came to Thebes he killed a man who resembled Laius at a crossroads. To learn the truth, Oedipus sends for the only living witness to the murder, a shepherd.

Another worry haunts Oedipus. As a young man, he learned from an oracle that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Fear of the prophecy drove him from his home in Corinth and brought him ultimately to Thebes. Again, Jocasta advises him not to worry about prophecies.

Oedipus finds out from a messenger that Polybus, king of Corinth, Oedipus' father, has died of old age. Jocasta rejoices — surely this is proof that the prophecy Oedipus heard is worthless. Still, Oedipus worries about fulfilling the prophecy with his mother, Merope, a concern Jocasta dismisses.

Overhearing, the messenger offers what he believes will be cheering news. Polybus and Merope are not Oedipus' real parents. In fact, the messenger himself gave Oedipus to the royal couple when a shepherd offered him an abandoned baby from the house of Laius.

Oedipus becomes determined to track down the shepherd and learn the truth of his birth. Suddenly terrified, Jocasta begs him to stop, and then runs off to the palace, wild with grief.

Confident that the worst he can hear is a tale of his lowly birth, Oedipus eagerly awaits the shepherd. At first the shepherd refuses to speak, but under threat of death he tells what he knows — Oedipus is actually the son of Laius and Jocasta.

And so, despite his precautions, the prophecy that Oedipus dreaded has actually come true. Realizing that he has killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus is agonized by his fate.

Rushing into the palace, Oedipus finds that the queen has killed herself. Tortured, frenzied, Oedipus takes the pins from her gown and rakes out his eyes, so that he can no longer look upon the misery he has caused. Now blinded and disgraced, Oedipus begs Creon to kill him, but as the play concludes, he quietly submits to Creon's leadership, and humbly awaits the oracle that will determine whether he will stay in Thebes or be cast out forever.

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A Sunny Morning - Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quientero

A Sunny Morning – Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quientero

The one-act play, “A Sunny Morning – A Comedy of Madrid” is a hilarious comic play written by Serafin and Joaquin Alveraz Quintero, popularly known as the ‘Golden Boys of Madrid Theatre’. The entire play revolves around two major characters Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura, who in their youth were passionate lovers but estranged by the cruelty of the fate. After several years of their separation now in their 70’s both Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura accidentally meet in a park of Madrid but they are not able to recognise each other. As they begin to talk they slowly drifted to recall their past and soon they realise individually that they were passionate lovers of the past.  However, they are unwilling to disclose their real identity and introduced themselves as friends of those lovers.

The play opens in the setting of a park where Dona Laura enters the park with the help of her maid, Petra and finds place to sit on a bench to feed the birds with breadcrumbs. Meanwhile, Don Gonzalo also enters the park with his servant, Juanito and hesitates to sit on other side of the bench, which was already occupied by Dona Laura.  He even curses the priests for being occupied his bench on which he usually sits in every sunny morning. He looks negatively at every aspect of his life and goes on complaining whereas Laura expresses her grievances when others disturb her.  In the beginning both of them are reluctant at each other but soon they tried to understand each other in the progress of their conversation.

Sharing a pinch of snuff between them softens their tone into friendliness. Soon their conversation stumbles upon reading books. This paves the way for the next level of their story.  Dona Laura reads a poem from a book given by Don Gonzalo, which surprises them, that they were the lovers of several decades before and now talking about themselves. However, they do not want to disclose their true identities since they have lost seen each other in early youth. So, they spin fictitious stories where Laura identifies herself as a friend of ‘The Silver Maiden’ Laura Llorente while Don Gonzalo identifies himself as the cousin of Don Gonzalo.

Laura Llorente lived at Maricela in Valencia. She was known as ‘The Silver Maiden’ in her locality. Gonzalo would pass by on his horseback every morning under Laura’s house window and would toss a bouquet of flowers up to her balcony. In the afternoon, while he would return by the same path and catch a bouquet of flowers that she would toss him down. When Laura’s parents wanted to marry her to a merchant a duel was followed and the merchant was badly wounded by Gonzalo. Don Gonzalo fled away fearing of the consequences. Laura waited for days and months and not hearing from him for a long time she left her home one afternoon and went to the beach. While she was engrossed in Don Gonzalo’s thoughts she was washed away by the waves.

Don Gonzalo also tried to spin his version of a story about his supposed cousin. Gonzalo also loved Laura intensely. After injuring the merchant seriously, fearing the consequences, he took refuge in Seville and Madrid. He wrote many letters to her but her parents seized them. As there was no reply, in despair, he joined the army and went to Africa where he died in one of the trenches holding the flag of Spain and muttering the name of his love, Laura. 

In reality, after two years of their separation, Laura married someone and settled down in her life. Similarly, Gonzalo disappointed over his lost love, three months later he too married a ballet dancer and settled down in Paris. Though, they were separated, in their hearts the yearning for the romantic love continued. When they met in the park after nearly 50 years both of them were able to recall their intense romantic affair. Although they came to know about each other in reality, they did not want to reveal, as they had lost their charming youth. Thus the play “A Sunny Morning entertains the audience.

 

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