Study Questions &
Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. Discuss the
role of the sentry in Antigone. How does this minor character affect
our impressions of major characters, or of the play's central conflict?
2. Examine
the messenger's speech narrating the death of Jocasta and the blinding
of Oedipus in
Oedipus the King. What is the messenger's
attitude toward the events he describes? What is the effect of his announcement
on the audience?
3. What is
the difference between Oedipus's relationship with Antigone and
his relationship with Ismene in
Oedipus at Colonus?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Creon is the only character
with a major role in all three of the Theban plays. Does he change
over the course of the three plays? If so, how?
2. Although there is little
or no onstage violence in the Theban plays, the characters in Oedipus
at Colonus are very much concerned with war. What different
things does war mean to each of the play's characters?
3. What importance does Antigone's
gender hold in Antigone? How does it shape the
way other characters view her?
4. All three of the Theban plays
are shaped by Oedipus's incestuous marriage to Jocasta. What do
these plays say about incest?
5. In each of the three plays,
the Chorus repeatedly gives us moral lessons, often condemning “pride.”
Are we to take the proclamations of the Chorus as absolute truth,
or is the Chorus just as fallible as the other characters? Is pride
really the catalyst for all the catastrophes of the plays?
