The theme of Oedipus The King was deemed to be simplistic in the beginning. As the play opened, it went that Oedipus, the king of Thebes, in an effort to rescue his citizens from a dreadful plague, was persuaded by the Oracle to decipher the assassin of the previous king Laius. Pivoting away from simplicity, the plot gradually unfolded itself with tragic ironies with Oedipus finding out the killer to be himself. The string of ironies first started when Oedipus was abandoned by his parents Laius and Jocasta, for they believed in the Oracle’s prophecy that Oedipus would kill his own father. Yet despite their efforts against fate, Oedipus not only survived, he came back to Thebes, killed Laius without realizing he had assassinated the King and his own father. More cynically, as he arrived at Thebes, he and Jocasta were married. This outrageous marriage between son and mother came to light when the shepherd, who rescued him at his birth, revealed the whole truth.
The tragedy reflected the degree to which the ancient Greek society believed in mystical power. In Sophocles’ time, the convictions of the people were mostly derived from and manipulated by the supernatural, which prompted social immoralities. Had it not been for their belief in the prophecies of the Oracle, Oedipus’s parents wouldn’t have wanted to kill their own son, and Oedipus wouldn’t have mistakenly killed his father and got married with Jocasta.
To emphasize the tragedies that happened to Oedipus, the staged reading successfully created a contradiction between the presentation of the King in the opening and that of the end. In conveying the condescending manners and arrogance of King Oedipus, Dana Watkins impressed me with the confidence projected from his clear voice. However, as the play was coming to an end, the director was able to manifest the frenzy and painfulness inside Oedipus through the dramatic makeup on Dana’s eyes, as Oedipus raked out his eyes after knowing the truth. The contrary not only added dramatic elements to the play’s ending but also provoked a pitiful sentiment within the audience for the ironical fate of the King of Thebes.