A Comparative Study Of The Point Of View In The Epic Poem And In The Play As Used By Homer And Sopho Essay, Research Paper
The two works, The Odyssey and Oedipus Rex both exhibit
different styles of writing; the first being an epic poem and the second being a
tragic play. These styles are evidently both rather different, however they both
seem to be rather effective as those works have withstood the ravages of time.
It is therefore the goal of this paper to examine the styles of each work in
turn, in a comparative fashion, and discover the weaknesses and strengths of
each and also to determine the effect that these styles generate on the reader.
Although it must always be known that the copies of these works are merely
translations, a certain amount of freedom must be granted if anything is to be
accomplished. In the first work, The Odyssey, the narrative point of view is that of
third person omniscient as we are presented the story through the eyes of some
other all-knowing and ever present being who then relates the story to us. For
example, “She was afraid that the swineherd would recognize him if he saw him
undisguised,….” (Pg. 257). In the preceding excerpt from The Odyssey,
the feelings of the “she” referred to are revealed in a manner that would be
impossible without the third person omniscient point of view. We see further
evidence of this throughout the book as the point of view of the tale leaps from
one place to another; watching first one character and then another. For
instance, Book 1 in The Odyssey describes Telemachus and his exploits, it
jumps later on to Odysseus in Book 5. The effects of this narrative style are myriad upon the reader. First of, one
of the most notable effects is that the reader is influenced easily by the bias
or opinion of the author; as the reader’s perspective, is in all ways that
matter, that of the author regarding the unfolding of the tale. This can be both
good and bad; for while this kind of method can be used as a way to teach right
and wrong or some other such goal, it may also prevent free thought and a truly
unbiased examination of the events in a particular story. For instance, the
author often refers to people as being “wise” (Telemachus) or “bright-eyed”
(Athene) in a fashion that does indeed influence the reader as to their feelings
toward the character in question. Also, another effect that this method of
narrative point of view has on the reader is to inform them of things that they
would not otherwise know; such as, in the previous quote, that someone is
“afraid” or feeling some other emotion. This allows the reader to become more
intimate with the characters, giving them a sense of intimacy with a being that
is merely a set of words upon a sheet of paper. This can add volumes of depth to
a story, although there are other ways to do this. One unfortunate outcome of
this, however, is the tendency to rely merely on the narrator and not on the
dialogue between the characters to learn about what is happening and about the
characters themselves. This is not necessarily a disadvantage, as the
conversations of characters may seem somewhat trivial or not fulfilling enough
to produce revelation, however it can also mean the absence of a whole new venue
of point of view, which will now be examined via Oedipus Rex. As has already been alluded to, the point of view in Oedipus Rex is
very different from that in The Odyssey; in fact, it is almost the exact
opposite of that in The Odyssey, making it the perfect complement to that
work for the purpose of this examination. In fact, while The Odyssey is
teeming with a sort of point of view similar to some sort of storyteller,
Oedipus Rex is written in the style of a play and seems to have no
narrative point of view at all. For instance, instead of merely saying what is
happening like in The Odyssey, Sophocles reveals the events transpiring
through use of the dialogue between the characters and also by using the Chorus,
which serves at times the role of an impromptu narrator (ie. “Sons and daughters
of Thebes, behold: this was Oedipus, Greatest of Men;……. His happiness down
to the grave in peace.”; last paragraph of the play). Like the first use of narrative point of view, this instance has many effects
upon the reader First of all, it allows the reader to draw his own conclusions
with much more freedom then in the previous example when much of what was said
was said with the taint of the author’s bias. Again, this can be good or bad,
depending on the wishes of the author. On the one hand, it does leave the
interpretation more up to the fancy of the author, however it does make it
somewhat harder for a clear theme to be discovered within the work in question.
Also, it does make the reader follow the story with a slightly higher amount of
attention, as the action is not presented in as straightforward a fashion as
that of the third person point of view; something that may make it more
difficult to follow for some, or more pleasurable a read for others. As a
counterpart to the intimacy developed by the revelation of emotion through the
third person, this method of point of view creates another form of intimacy; one
created in the womb of familiarity, as in plays such as Oedipus Rex there
is no middleman narrator between the reader and the characters, which may aid in
the understanding of those same characters on a more personal level. Despite the
fact that the story apparently has no narrator, there is still a narrator of
sort hidden within the confines of the story; a narrator already alluded to: the
chorus. The effect of the chorus is somewhat wondrous in the play as it allows
the freedom and advantages of a non-narrator / third person point of view story,
but still allows the input of some of the views of the author and also allows
the story to proceed without the need to divulge all the necessary details
through medium of inter-character discourse. For instance, the author is able to
insert some third person style information through the chorus, while maintaining
the neutrality of a somewhat guileless point of view. Throughout this paper, we have taken a look at the different point of view
and narrative techniques that Sophocles and Homer used in their great works
Oedipus Rex and The Odyssey. By examining these two works and their
ying-yang style techniques, we have come to discover that greatness in
literature may be achieved through many different roads and paths; and that
variety is indeed a highly valued resource. We saw how the techniques of the
epic poem and the technique involved in the tragic play both created a positive
and negative effect on the reader and also that they both served, in their own
particular way, to create works of literature that lasted through the ages and
withstood the ravages of time.
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