WorksheetsOedipus Rex Refresher - Background & Beginning of Play
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 10mins
Oedipus Rex is a tragedy.
True
False
According to Aristotle, a tragedy can evoke two things in an audience. These two things are:
Pity & Hope
Admiration & Pity
Fear & Pity
Admiration & Fear
A tragic hero should possess all of the following traits/qualities, EXCEPT FOR:
Making a mistake that leads to downfall/disaster
Being elevated in rank & ability
Having a tragic flaw
Receiving help from someone older & wiser
Examples of tragic flaws include all of the following EXCEPT for:
Greed
Shyness
Arrogance
Hubris
This type of irony is when the audience knows more than the characters in the play.
Situational Irony
Dramatic Irony
Verbal Irony
Coincidental Irony
This term means excessive pride or self-confidence.
In media res
Hamartia
Chorus
Hubris
This is an emotional release (or purging) that
leaves the reader (and, possibly, character) with a
new sense of self-awareness and renewal.
Hamartia
Irony
Hubris
Catharsis
True or False: someone can be willfully ignorant/choose to be ignorant.
True
False
This is the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power.
Free Will
Fate
Ignorance
Hubris
This is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion.
Fate
Ignorance
Free Will
Hamartia
True or False: Ancient Greece was a polytheistic society.
True
False
Which god does Oedipus seek guidance from?
Zeus
Poseidon
Hermes
Apollo
How does Oedipus gain access to Apollo?
Through Tiresias, the blind prophet.
Through his dreams.
Through the Oracle of Delphi.
Through the altar at Mount Cithaeron.
True or False: The Oracle of Delphi was a young, unmarried woman.
True
False
Why was Oedipus named the king of Thebes?
He solved the riddle of the sphinx.
He took the throne by force.
He found the missing king's scepter.
The queen asked for his hand in marriage.
Why does the priest come to the palace to see Oedipus in the opening scene of the play?
To offer a sacrifice for the coming harvest.
To beg for the king's help with the plague that is ravishing the city.
To ask for the king's permission in order to pray to Apollo for better weather.
To tell the king that Tiresias was the one who killed Laius.
Which of the following is NOT something that is happening as a result of the plague on Thebes?
The earth has been scorched.
The crops are dying.
The cattle are dying.
People, including women and infants, are dying.
Who does Oedipus send to ask the oracle of Apollo why there was a plague on the city?
a servant
his wife, Jocasta
Creon
Tiresias
According to Creon, why is there a plague on the city of Thebes?
One of the priests has angered Apollo.
The gods don't like the fact that Oedipus is king.
Laius's killer has not been punished.
The city is cursed.
What detail do we find out about Laius's (the former king) murder?
He was run over by a chariot.
He didn't die until after he made it back home to Thebes.
He was viciously attacked by the Sphinx.
He was murdered by a band of thieves; not single-handed.
