Oedipus Rex and The Burial at Thebes

Oedipus Rex and Burial at Thebes

The dramatic tragedies of Ancient Greece represent some of the most important and profound stories of Western Civilization. They have been retold many times over the millennia since the myths were first told, sometimes in very direct adaptations that retain much of the original story and intent of the earliest version, and often in new contexts and in almost unrecognizable forms. Seamus Heaney did not go this far in Burial at Thebes, his adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone, but his own interpretation of the classic (literally) story of Oedipus and the fallout of his tragic reign is still an intriguing and obviously modern telling of the story. Without changing any of the elements of the plot of this well-known and often adapted story, Heaney manages to shift the focus and the themes of the play just slightly in order to enhance the plays relevance -- already apparent in the original form -- in these modern times. At times he takes certain liberties with the translation and adaptation, proving that art is never dead but rather that it must breathe, grow, and adapt along with the times that produce and view it.

The changes Heaney has made are often subtle, and sometimes not, but either way they have a profound effect on the interpretation of the story and the characters' intents. Not only does Heaney's retelling of Antigone reflect changes in modern dramatic and personal sensibilities since the time of the Ancient Greeks, but it also reflects the shift in character that occurred between Oedipus Rex, the first play in the tragic cycle by Sophocles, and his Antigone. A comparison of Seamus Heaney's Burial at Thebes with Sophocles' Oedipus Rex reveals the variety of ways in which any story and any character in that story can be viewed, depending on which side of history the viewer stands, and the size of the gap that exists between the viewer and the action of the story. These plays reveal that this gap, however, is less important than we may think.

Both Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Heaney's Burial at Thebes revolve around themes of betrayal of family members. The differences in the situations, however, as well as the differences in the telling of the two plays, reveal strikingly different related themes branching off of this one over-riding theme. In Oedipus Rex, it is the king's unknowing betrayal of his father -- and his mother's subsequent betrayal of her first husband -- that leads to all of the following tragic events. In this play, the focus seems to be on the inevitability of fate. It is not the actions of the human characters in and of themselves that leads to tragedy, but instead it is fate and oracular intervention that forces events forward. In Burial at Thebes, the emphasis is placed on personal responsibility and the injustices of human actions; fate and the gods, while still playing an important part in the plot of the play, are less emphasized than the petty acts of King Creon and the passions and despair of Antigone. It is this lead character's outrage that drives the plot, rather than any journey of self-discovery or some fateful intervention. This is seen when Antigone declares her defiance of the king: "I will bury him myself. / and if death comes, so be it. / There'll be glory in it. / ... The gods will be proud of me." Rather than placing the importance of the gods first, Antigone views her own actions as of primary importance.

There is also a heavy element of introspection in both plays; it is Oedipus' attempt to discover the past of his kingdom that reveals his own personal past, and it is this self-discovery that leads to the tragedy of the play. Oedipus himself reveals the personal nature of this tragedy when he says "nor needs to tell / How your whole state is sick, for howsoe'er / Ye sicken, sicker is this heart of mine." His personal focus comes as a result of external events, which contrasts to Antigone's perceived control of external realities in Burial at Thebes, but it reveals a similar consideration of the outcome of the plot. Antigone is equally introspective in Burial at Thebes, and equally wary as to the outcome of her actions. But instead of seeing her past actions and the ways in which they might have defied fate and the gods, Antigone sees her future actions and her own independence as the main ways by which she might affect her future. Oedipus Rex is a play about how it is impossible to escape one's past, while Burial at Thebes illustrates the similar but different truth that it is impossible not to carve one's own path into the future.