Journal Entry 5 Oedipus

Sophocles evokes fear and pity among the memebers of the audience in various ways, in his plays.

In Oedipus, Sophocles makes the audience feel fear by showing the massive change that happens to Oedipus. In the beginning, Oedipus is kind and caring, but later gets distrustful of everyone, finnally ending in misery. It gets the audience members to think that they themselves might be caught in the same kind of loop as Oedipus, thus causing fear among them to change so they don't become like that. The audience also feels fear in Oedipus. This happens when Oedipus is argueing with Tiresias over Oedipus' future and fate. With a first glance, the scene seems exciting and thrilling, for if no one has seen the play, then they would be wondering who really did kill the person. However, a classic Greek audience member already knows the stroy of Oedipus. So, when they see Oedipus trying in vain to go against his own fate, it evokes pity, for the audience already knows that the "helmsman" has already been caught in his twisted fate, and that he is too blind to see it.

In Medea, Sophocles makes the audience feel fear and pity, as in Oedipus. The audience feels fear, for when Medea kills the king of Iolcos. This would strike fear in the hearts of the audience, for Iocles did in for love; she thought that it would help Jason move up to the throne. However, it ultimately lead to their casting out. This would make the audience afraid, for they would not like to end up like the couple and let their emotions cloud there judgement of what they should do. The audience also feels pity for the couple. This is revealed when Medea has to kill her own brother. The reason why is because you can surmise that Medea was likely close to her brother. So it evokes pity on the audience, since they know that Medea had to decide to act, and chose the lesser of 2 loves.