Oedipus Journal #1

Point of View:

Oedipus is told as if the reader of the story was watching it play out on the stage because it is a play.  However, all of the information the audience obtains is from dialogue, as no character is telling the story.  Additionally, the only way the audience can learn character's emotions or opinions is from the dialogue and their actions.  This establishes a third person limited point of view.  Because of the fact that this is a play, it would not flow very well with the audience if the point of view changed, and it does not.  Because the narrative voice is simply telling the story and what is happening with the characters, we can accept it as very reliable.  The reader does not get to know the characters on a deep level.  Basically all of the knowledge we get on the characters is from the summary or from the dialogue.  This is probably because it lets the reader develop their own opinion, and get differing lessons from the story.  The characters are not very credible because there is alot of dramatic irony, so most of the time the reader them self is more trustworthy than the characters because the characters are sometimes so wrapped in mystery and confusion they don't know what is going on!  The characters, once again, are presented through the dialogue and their actions.  This creates the window for viewers to speculate motives for why the characters do what they do.  The writer does not really persuade us to like or dislike the characters.  Although, when a character does something immoral, it leads the audience to be frustrated.  Additionally, when characters (like Oedipus' proud, overconfident nature) show traits not liked by people in real life generally make people dislike the character in the play.  Often the way these characters are portrayed is to show what the playwright thinks about people with those qualities they have experienced in their life and culture.