Five

Sophocles uses the gods to evoke fear and pity from the audience because when Oedipus and the Chorus talk about Apollo it is assumed that everyone knows who it is. This should be true because the audience were the Greeks who were familiar with Apollo and the idea of The Gods. This casual talk referring to the gods connects the audience to be familiar with the same things that the characters are familiar with; therefore connecting the audience and the characters. The whole story gets more and more obscure (especially to us as the audience) as it goes along. By starting out with something that is not initially out of the ordinary give the audience more ease to get into the story, the audience has time to establish opinions and relationships with the character. By the end of the tragedy, the audience has ease feeling the effects of the tragedy; feeling pity for the character, feeling nervous about the whole situation.

Four

Plague

"and the plague, the fiery god of fever hurls down on the city, his lightning slashing through us- raging plague in all it's vengeance..." (160; 34-36)

"Murder sets the plague-storm on the city." (164; 14)

"Come down, Apollo, save us, stop the plague." (167; 168)

"do what the plague demands:" (171; 246)

These specific quotes come from the beginning of the story. The plague is a common word that Oedipus and the Chorus uses to describe Thebes. Thebes is in a painful and troublesome time and the plague is not an actual sickness that is spreading, just the spreading of killing and hard times (164). The plague is terrible like most plagues are, it is fair for people to complain and wonder about it(160). A plague is unstoppable, and that is why they call to Apollo to help with the plague (167). No one can do anything about the plague, there is not much to do (171). This relates to fate; no one can do anything about fate. People have to accept it and just go with it, like the plague (described on 171). Some fate is terrible news that the only power that can stop it is the gods. Not everyone may accept it, and sometimes it can be painful.

Three

Sophocles establishes gender roles in this part, where women are more reserved than the men. Oedipus takes charge of all the conversations between him and Jocasta, he does most of the talking waiting for Jocasta's next question. Jocasta asks a lot of questions and has many responses that move the conversation forward but also she doesn't say much. This shows how women, in this book, are seen to be less knowledgeable than the men. Oedipus gets frustrated with Jocasta when she states he opinion, this shows that Oedipus feels stronger than Jocasta. Through the short conversations between Oedipus and Jocasta, Sophocles shows men as being superior to women.

Two

I think Oedipus is a proficient leader, but he knows this and, really, it gets the better of him sometimes. He has natural leadership qualities and he is driven. He seems to get ahead of himself and he jumps to conclusions and goes with accusations. In this passage he curses a lot thinking it may intimidate people, and that is a quality of a proficient leader; he talks to a whole and naturally takes a leadership position, he is visual and seems to be intense and cares about what he is talking about.