Comparison Between The Work Of Oedipus King Of Sophocles And The Work Of Miguel Murillo

Comparison between the work of Oedipus King of Sophocles and the work of Miguel Murillo

Summary

Our goal is to make visible the work of those who deal with the version of the literature classics for their staging through a comparative analysis between the text of the Oedipus King of Sophocles and an adaptation of the work carried out by Miguel Murillo (2014).

Introduction

To facilitate the understanding of the analysis of the work, we will begin by defining the gender in which the tragedy is framed. Miguel Medina Vicario, in the dramatic genres (1993), says:

The tragedy is based on the elementary fusion of the two basic aspects that complete man: the unstoppable metaphysical impulse and the purely daily.

From this idea, it is much easier to understand its origin, and that is that the tragedy is born from the ditirambo, these songs were offered as funeral regrets and were based on the idea of conceiving life as if it were the personification of human suffering. (Alonso de Santos, 2007, P.224).

When studying the tragedy it is impossible. a.C.). In chapter IV, the author gave the following definition:

“It is, therefore, the imitation tragedy of a hard and complete action, of a certain amplitude, in seasoned language, each of the species (of dressings) in the different parts, acting the characters, and not through the story, and thatThrough compassion and fear they carry out the purge of such conditions."

On the other hand, it is essential to understand that the versions are never entirely respectful of the original text, but that their defense is still necessary because they achieve that the literature classics remain in force.

The versions tend to eliminate the heavy rhetorical load that has always been present in the literature classics.

Today’s readers need today’s books and the public likes a language that approaches that he hears on the radio every morning and that eliminates all those elements that hinder dramatic development.

That is why we present a comparative literature analysis between the Oedipus King of Sophocles, and the version of the work Miguel Murillo, based on the theatrical analysis scheme that José Luis Alonso de Santos presents in his manual of structure and theatrical practice(2007) and through the synthesis that Fatima Coca performs how an analysis of a dramatic work is performed in the dramatic genre for the analysis of the dramatic work (n.d).

Characterization of the author and its production 

Based on the biography that makes the figure of Sophocles the Institute of Classic Studies on Society and Politics (2009), and already understood the concept of tragedy, we will talk about the author of the work of which we present study.

The date of his birth ranges from 497/496 to. C. In the city of equestrian settler, and his more than 90 years of life gave him the opportunity to live the brightest century in the history of Athens. Our author lived the medical wars and those of the Peloponnese, although he died, yes, before his homeland had to surrender to the Spartans in 404. a.C.

During his life, he actively participated in public life, carrying out great positions in the administration and military service. Sophocles also influenced Asclepio’s recognition.

These data allow us to know that Sophocles was undoubtedly a man committed to his city. To this is added that some authors such as Jerónimo de Rodas in historical memories, tell anecdotes in which it is demonstrated how the author was loved and praised among his neighbors.

Focusing already on more literary aspects, but without detaching ourselves at all of the way in which Sophocles connected with the public we will say that he is considered the great winner of tragic agones. Since his first representation in 468, he won the appreciation of the Athenian public. We count 18 or 24 cases, depending on the sources, in which it reached the first place. His artistic production was very wide, more than one hundred tragedies of which only seven have reached us.

The meticulousness with which he builds his work together with the way his characters and themes inspired in turn fear and pity caused that much of Greek theatrical criticism considered it as the best among the tragedy builders.

This fusion between fear and pity is present in the character of Oedipus, but also in many others of his tragedies. We highlight Antigone work in which there is a conflict between the moral and the politically correct.

He founded a society of artists whose purpose was to promote literary creativity and union between guild participants. Both his son Iophonte and his grandson, also called Sophocles, followed his trade.

His death would arrive after a long and quiet Senectation in 405 to.C. (Manuel Fernández, 2015, P.22).

Historic context

We rely on the work Ancient Historia Universal II: The Greek world (2014) by Pilar Fernández Uriel to carry out the historical context of the work Oedipus Rey.

Mycenaean civilization extends mainly by central and southern Greece in addition to islands such as Crete, Cyprus or Rodas. Talasocracy is the fundamental cause of Mycenaean expansion.

Its origins today are not entirely clear, but without a doubt, between 1500 and 1400 the Mycenaean culture prevails in the Aegean.

The denomination given to this culture is simply due to the importance that Homer gives to the place in his poems and the archaeological discoveries that have taken place there. And in reality, there is no evidence of a political supremacy of the place.

Mycenaic Greeks are characterized by the introduction of great architectural, military, commercial and even idiomatic innovations since they offer the first written testimonies of the language.

Archaeological discoveries and myrenic representations suggest how in the last years of civilization the war of its inhabitants was accentuated.

The walled strengths, ready for their defense, increased in the latest decades that lead us to deduce a period of instability that could mark the end of civilization.

Despite this we cannot indicate a unique cause for the end of an entire civilization.

The archaeological sites presented certain innovations such as the introduction of iron in weapons or the use of other types of fibulars, and that, although these changes may be the result of evolution, without a doubt, they open the hypothesis of possible invasions.

Other researchers point out the end of civilization as a product of natural disasters, to which the theory of an end due to internal conflicts in civilization due to economic and social instability is added.

The consequences of the fall of civilization are devastating, Greece moves away from maritime trade retaking the form of livestock economy which leads to the decline of social relations and even the loss of writing.

The historical moment in which the plot develops does not coincide with the time in which it was composed, and it is that Sophocles ends its composition in the classical era (S.V- v-.C), just when Athens lived its maximum splendor, so it is the least curious than the same man whose desire to live were reflected by ion in his epidemics, the one who, like no other, knew how to recreate the deepest of the pain and the mostTerrible of penalties. (Albin Lesky, 2001, pp.187-189).

Umberto Eco in his praise of the summary considers that the realization of the summary of a literary work means implicitly giving a critical judgment about it. In fact, Francis Fergusson once said that Oedipus Rey’s summary was "looking for the culprit". (Umberto Eco, 1985 P.14).

Despite this conception, we will try to offer a breviary of the work that concerns us today, following the synthesis that Manuel Fernández-Galiano proposes.

A plague epidemic has ravaged the city of Thebes. Men die, women fail to conceive and the people are desperate. In this context, the inhabitants of the care go to the Palace with the intention that their king, Oedipus, solves the problem. Although for this he requests the help of his brother -in -law Creon.

After consulting the Oracle of Delphi, Creon reports that the plague is the penalty imposed by the gods for the murder of Layo, and that it will not cease until his murderer appears.

Oedipus then begins to inquire about what really happened encouraging the people to deliver to the culprit. Meanwhile, the king lets himself advise for the fortune. Although Oedipus, far from taking as accurate the words of the fortune. Since he thought his father was Pólibo and Mérope, kings of Corinth.

This issue leads both of a great discussion that does not reach its term until YocastAlthough an oracle had predicted that he would die at the hands of his own son, product of the union of both and that he would later take herself as a wife.

Oedipus then remembers that in his exile he killed someone a crossroads, although he did that for himself and not in a group. But even so, he begins to doubt his true identity, he may be Layo’s murderer.

A short time later a messenger appears to announce the death of Pólibo, now Oedipus would have to go to take care of his affairs as his successor, but in the conversation, he discovers that he is not his son of blood, since the same messenger explains thatHe received it from a pastor when he was a child and delivered it to Pólibo himself.

Finally he gets the pastor to confess everything he knows about his identity and that is that Oedipus was really Layo’s son.

After resolving the entire framework, Yocasta suicide and Oedipus decides to break his eyes with the brooches of his mother’s dress and wife. Once blind, he asks Creon to exile him. From that moment Oedipus wanders only without support and consideration of anyone. (Fernández-Galiano, 2015, pp. 28-35).

The development of the facts is the same in the version of Miguel Murillo but we must understand that when we read the adaptation of a classic we will not see what happens, but the way it happens (José Joaquín Rodríguez Lara, 2019).

The main theme of composition is the cruelty of fate. Man cannot escape the destiny that has been written for him. This is already marked and always ends up complying. It is what is known as the "fatum".

Other issues such as incestuous relationships or that of the hero who believes is superior and therefore ends the consequences are discussed.

Speech

Two stories develop in parallel to make sense of the main action. In this way, the death of Pólibo in Corinth, which is a fact outside the main plot, ends up giving rise to the resolution of the conflict.

In general rules, tragedies are characterized by the presentation of a problem that is not solved until the end of the same. From here we get Oedipus Rey follows the typical presentation scheme and outcome.

Following the structural analysis that makes all the work of Sophocles José María Lucas de Dios in its structure of the tragedy of Sophocles (1982), we can say that the external structure of Oedipus Rey is composed of only an act composed of a prologue to whichIt is followed by the moods, after which the episodes take place and we are until we reach the exodus .

On the other hand, the dramatic structure is different in the version of Miguel Murillo, here there are no number of certain acts but a total of fourteen scenes marked by the exit of the characters and whose denomination could be understood as a synthesis of the content of the same.

In spite of this, the author’s will is present at all times to respect the original structure, from which he eliminates, yes, much of us are so that the public feels close to the representation.

The characters coincide both in the original version and in the adaptation made of the work Miguel Murillo, but there is something that catches our attention. In the work of Sophocles the choir acts as a collective character that tends to individualize in many occasions but nevertheless, Murillo creates individual characters to do the times in which the choir acts as a single individual.

Manuel Fernández-Galiano presents in the introduction and rhythmic version that he himself makes of the work the following hierarchical classification of the dramatis persone:

• Protagonist: Oedipus.
• Deuteragonist: Priest, Yocasta, Servant, Messenger of the Palace.
• Tritagonist: Creon, Tiresias, Corinth Messenger.

We will also classify the characters for their degree of appearance:

• Patent characters: Oedipus, Yocasta, Creon, Tiresias, Corifeo ..
• Latent characters: Antigone and Ismene.
• Absent character: they do not appear in the work but they are fundamental for the development of the plot, we highlight among these to the adoptive parents of Oedipus or the Sphinx.

It is important to understand that there is not only one type of character, Brecht, in theatrical aesthetic breviary presents a typological catalog in which the characters are classified according to their features and according to which Oedipus would be a dramatic character especially because of the way in whichSuggest the viewer. (Bertolt Brecht, 1957)

In Oedipus Rey, the characters are self-defined by their actions and interventions and that is why they are based on the study of the psychological development of the same.

In fact, from these indicators the Aragonese Center for Education Technologies presents through an analysis that makes the work the psychological development of its main character, Oedipus:

“During the work and as the truth is discovering, he shows impotent before his destiny. In the end, when he is aware of his misfortune, he appears humble and subject to the designs of destiny and of the righteous men, as I believe. Its fall ends with the autocastigo and exile ".

We talked at the beginning of the dissertation of Aristotelian poetics. In it, the units of time, space and action were established, and that every work should meet these requirements to be accepted among the public of the time.

On the other hand, Alonso de Santos maintains in Manual of Theory and Theater Practice (2017) that an indispensable characteristic in dramatic time is the character of synthesis it has, it must also be taken into account that the life expectancy of a literary character arejust two hours and that at this time all its existence occurs.

Oedipus Rey was written in the subsequent years of 430 to.C, being represented for the first time just a year later.

In the work, plots are interspersed that we are interested in describing simultaneously and in non -linear order.

The Aragonese Center for Education Technologies (2009) determines the following:

Dramatic action is built in a different order to the action of history: it begins in medias res, that is, when many of the facts of history that affect its development have already occurred (the work begins at the time whenA try to look for a solution that releases the people of Thebes of epidemics). To publicize the facts whose consequences are suffering, the characters date back to past times that are left out of the action of the tragedy (anaepsis). And to reinforce the intrigue, they advance events that are about to happen (probesis). In this way, the gradation of truth runs parallel to the increase in dramatic tension until it converges in the fatal outcome.

Time remains in the version of Miguel Murillo, the action takes place in a single day in which allusions of the protagonist are continually made and also to a future that is marked by the misfortune of an insurmountable destiny.

Alonso de Santos (2017), points out that the same thing happens over time, happens with space, and is that it is part of the drama. The place where the work takes place is not only where the action happens, but has a poetic action.

That the work takes place at the gates of the palace, it is not a coincidence since it symbolizes the hope that the Tebanos deposited in their king, so we can understand how a metaphor of the decay of the reign of Oedipus the fact that the characters becomeTo palace every time the situation worsens.

Sophocles followed the Aristotelian principles in all his works, including the one that occupies us today, so we can say that Oedipus develops entirely in the city of Thebes, the capital of Beocia, at the gates of the monarch’s palace, which does not meanThat is the only place mentioned in the composition.

In fact, the city of Corinth, located next to the isthmus that separates the peloponnese from the rest of the Hélade plays a fundamental role in the work despite the fact that no part of the plot develops in that place.

In Miguel Murillo’s version, the action also develops on the outskirts of the Tebano Palace of Oedipus and Yocasta.

We present the analysis of the scenery carried out by José Joaquín Rodríguez Lara (2019).

Surely the most shocking of the whole assembly is the scenery. In the Orchestra burns a kind of Olympic pebetero conceived as a place of worship. On its pedestal offerings are left […], on the fire of the pebetero there is a kind of mast that does not seem to have any function in the work. Although I was going to have it.

On stage, twelve great blocks are distributed chaotically, with the aspect of being part of an architectural puzzle. During the development of the representation, these pieces are ordered to form a circle within which they are Oedipus and his mother and wife Yocasta. It is the wheel of destiny, which nobody can avoid even if they try all its might. But that circle not only represents the destination, it is also a sun watch, divided into twelve times.

Issues about the gender to which the work belongs

Alonso de Santos presents in his theory and theatrical practice (2007), the main elements in the construction of the tragedy of those who serve to catalog Oedipus Rey within the genre:

1. The fall of the hero: Oedipus presents himself at the beginning of the work as an arrogant king who feels superior to others for having defeated the sphinx but ends up falling at the end of the work.
2. Misunderstanding between the gods and men: despite the supplications by the Tebanos the gods will not make the plague on it until the murderer of Layo is discovered.
3. Tragic guilt: Oedipus’ crime is not only a matter of justice, but also leads to the trigger of great bad for the city of Thebes.
4. The search for truth: the hero, although he is not aware of it at the beginning of the work, must unravel the problem that arises. Oedipus in his search for Layo’s murderer, his own destiny is being created without knowing it.

Greek tragedy uses all these elements to develop its purpose, which is to understand that fate is unalterable, is beyond gods and men.

conclusion

As we indicated at the beginning of the dissertation, the fundamental objective of the analysis of the work is the visibility of the work of those who version the classics of literature, from the comparative analysis of the version of Miguel Murillo de Oedipus Rey with respect to his workbase.

And in spite.

It is also necessary to take into account that they are not different works, but that we are simply before a version of the original, which means that although certain stylistic elements give the version a fresh and current air, we cannot expect changes inThe development of events. And in the case of having them, the version would stop being a version to become treason.