On Teaching 'Oedipus Rex': A Compromise Interpretation.

This paper discusses the problems of interpeting "Oedipus Rex" and argues that morality was not the primary question being raised in this play, nor was Sophocles urging people to humility and piety. Instead, Sophocles was primarily interested in the insufficiency of human knowledge. The gods and their role in destiny, the character and personality of Oedipus, Oedipus' tragic flaw, and the role of guilt in the play are discussed. It is concluded that, in this play, human reason was an exercise in futility, that the universe is ordered and things will be and happen as they will, and that human beings can observe and even help, but not really change anything within that order. (TS)