King Oedipus summary

Oedipus the King unfolds as a murder mystery, a political thriller, and a psychological whodunit. Throughout this mythic story of patricide and incest, Sophocles emphasizes the irony of a man determined to track down, expose, and punish an assassin, who turns out to be himself.

As the play opens, the citizens of Thebes beg their king, Oedipus, to lift the plague that threatens to destroy the city. Oedipus has already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle to learn what to do.

On his return, Creon announces that the oracle instructs them to find the murderer of Laius, the king who ruled Thebes before Oedipus. The discovery and punishment of the murderer will end the plague. At once, Oedipus sets about to solve the murder.

Summoned by the king, the blind prophet Tiresias at first refuses to speak, but finally accuses Oedipus himself of killing Laius. Oedipus mocks and rejects the prophet angrily, ordering him to leave, but not before Tiresias hints darkly of an incestuous marriage and a future of blindness, infamy, and wandering.

Oedipus attempts to gain advice from Jocasta, the queen; she encourages him to ignore prophecies, explaining that a prophet once told her that Laius, her husband, would die at the hands of their son. According to Jocasta, the prophecy did not come true because the baby died, abandoned, and Laius himself was killed by a band of robbers at a crossroads.

Oedipus becomes distressed by Jocasta's remarks because just before he came to Thebes he killed a man who resembled Laius at a crossroads. To learn the truth, Oedipus sends for the only living witness to the murder, a shepherd.

Another worry haunts Oedipus. As a young man, he learned from an oracle that he was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. Fear of the prophecy drove him from his home in Corinth and brought him ultimately to Thebes. Again, Jocasta advises him not to worry about prophecies.

Oedipus finds out from a messenger that Polybus, king of Corinth, Oedipus' father, has died of old age. Jocasta rejoices — surely this is proof that the prophecy Oedipus heard is worthless. Still, Oedipus worries about fulfilling the prophecy with his mother, Merope, a concern Jocasta dismisses.

Overhearing, the messenger offers what he believes will be cheering news. Polybus and Merope are not Oedipus' real parents. In fact, the messenger himself gave Oedipus to the royal couple when a shepherd offered him an abandoned baby from the house of Laius.

Oedipus becomes determined to track down the shepherd and learn the truth of his birth. Suddenly terrified, Jocasta begs him to stop, and then runs off to the palace, wild with grief.

Confident that the worst he can hear is a tale of his lowly birth, Oedipus eagerly awaits the shepherd. At first the shepherd refuses to speak, but under threat of death he tells what he knows — Oedipus is actually the son of Laius and Jocasta.And so, despite his precautions, the prophecy that Oedipus dreaded has actually come true. Realizing that he has killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus is agonized by his fate.Rushing into the palace, Oedipus finds that the queen has killed herself. Tortured, frenzied, Oedipus takes the pins from her gown and rakes out his eyes, so that he can no longer look upon the misery he has caused. Now blinded and disgraced, Oedipus begs Creon to kill him, but as the play concludes, he quietly submits to Creon's leadership, and humbly awaits the oracle that will determine whether he will stay in Thebes or be cast out forever.

Arms and the man

Summary Arms and the Man: The play is a romantic comedy of a young, beautiful and sentimental girl, Raina as well as her clever and over smart maid Louka. The play takes place in the family of major Petkoff. The mannerisms and excessive stress on the stupid pride of nationalism and resultant jingoism come under mockery by the playwright. Where Raina day dreams and idealizes the heroism of her Fiance. The play opens with the news of war between Servians and the Bulgarians. Major Petkoff has been on the front fighting for his nation, the Bulgarians. At midnight, a Swiss fugitive soldier runs up the balcony of major Petkoff's house; he enters the room of Raina. On gun point, Raina is forced to remain silent and she cooperates. A little later, the lady realizes the soldier is in a rather bad condition. She comes to know that the soldier has no bullet in his pistol and the bag he carries has no ammunition. This shocks her. She offers him some chocolates to eat. The soldier thanks her and tries to explain the state of a fugitive soldier as well as why he does not keep ammunition with him.
"I've no ammunition. What use are cartridges in battle? I always carry chocolate instead; and I finished the last cake of that yesterday."
He tells that soldiers are always alike. They are afraid of death. They are to save their life at all costs. She makes fun of him for being coward because she believes that "our soldiers are not like that" and he replies her with painful realism:"There are only two sorts of soldiers: old ones and young ones...Sheer ignorance of the art of war, nothing else".
The soldier stays there all night and before dawn Raina tells her mother about the soldier and they let him escape with an old coat of major Petkoff. Next day the major and Raina's Fiance, Sergius, return from the front because war is over. A treaty of peace has been signed. Raina appears very happy to meet Sergius. She is so proud of his bravery. She amuses him by praising him and they are very romantic. The moment Sergius is alone, we find him flirting with Louka. He never misses any chance of being romantic with Louka while she is always trapping him to marry her.While Sergius and Petkoff are inside the house planning the transit of the regiment, the Swiss comes to return the coat and to utter the words of thanks. Catherine, Raina's mother, takes the bag and asks him to leave before somebody notices him. But before he can leave Petkoff and Sergius come running to stop him. They are acquainted with him. They stop him as a guest. They even ask him to help them settle the transit of regiments.The Swiss stays. Petkoff and Sergius are not aware of the refuge given to the Swiss by Raina. Petkoff seeks the very coat which was given to the Swiss. The coat is brought but Petkoff asks his wife to mend it because it seems quite loose. On the other hand, Louka prevails upon Sergius and tells him that Raina is unfaithful to him behind his back. Petkoff puts his hand in the pocket of the coat and shouts surprisingly: "Your photograph, with the inscription: "Raina, to her Chocolate Cream Soldier-a souvenir" was in the coat pocket but is now missing. Petkoff smells something is wrong. He asks Nicola if he dropped Raina's pastry that morning. Then he asks Sergius if he were the chocolate cream soldier and he returns with no.
Here Raina reveals that Sergius is interested in Louka while the Swiss is already married; she gave that picture to the Swiss thinking he was not married. The Swiss agitates that he is not married. Petkoff is confused but Nicola, the Fiance of Louka, disowns Louka stating her above his dignity. Louka, offers her hand to Sergius and he kisses it. She declares that he is to marry her now. And Sergius remembers that Louka offered her hand on the condition that she must be married. Sergius agrees to marry her.
Catherine accuses Louka of giving false information to Sergius and she replies: "I told Major Saranoff she would never marry him if the Swiss gentleman came back." This startles them all. The Swiss is the most amazed one.

The lion and the Jewel

The Lion and the Jewel Summary

The play begins as Sidi, the village belle of Ilujinle, enters the square with a pail of water balanced on her head. Lakunle, the western-educated schoolteacher, sees her, runs from his classroom, and takes Sidi's pail. He berates her for carrying loads on her head and not dressing modestly, and she retaliates by reminding Lakunle that the village calls him a madman. Sidi grows angry as Lakunle tells her that women are less intelligent than men because of their small brains. He says that soon the village will have machines to do all the hard work and he describes the beauty of Lagos, which is an entirely modern city. Lakunle refuses to give Sidi her pail of water back until she agrees to marry him and he offers a number of flowery lines that describe his intense love for her. Sidi reminds him that she'd marry him any day if he'd agree to pay the bride price. Lakunle deems this barbaric and refuses. He grabs Sidi and tells her how wonderful their modern marriage will be. When he kisses her, Sidi is disgusted. Though Lakunle insists that he loves Sidi and that kissing is something normal for modern couples, Sidi replies that kissing is only a way to avoid paying the bride price. She calls Lakunle mad.

A group of young villagers enter the square and tell Sidi that the stranger returned to the village with a magazine of images. Sidi excitedly asks if the stranger made Sidi as beautiful as he said he would, and the girls tell her he did. They say that Baroka, the village Bale, is still looking at the images and is jealous of Sidi, though he pretends to be proud of her. Another girl says that Baroka appears in the magazine as well, but his image is very small and shows him next to the latrines. Upon hearing this, Sidi declares that she's more powerful than Baroka and has no reason to marry Lakunle.
Sidi suggests that they dance the dance of the "lost traveler." She assigns parts to the villagers and forces Lakunle to play the part of the stranger. Despite his initial unwillingness to participate, Lakunle throws himself fully into the dance. The rest of the villagers dance while Lakunle performs realistic miming of driving a car, drunkenly wandering through the jungle, and discovering Sidi in the river. Suddenly, Baroka joins the dance and the action stops as the villagers kneel and bow to him. Lakunle tries to leave, but Baroka insists he stay and they continue the dance. Baroka instructs his attendants to seize Lakunle/the stranger, but he then takes pity on the stranger and sets out a feast in his honor. The stranger takes photographs of the village and is especially entranced by Sidi and her dancing. The dance ends when the stranger vomits. Sidi and the villagers chase Lakunle towards the actual stranger so he can translate for them, and Baroka muses that he hasn't taken a new wife in five months.Later that day, Sidi and Lakunle walk down the road. Lakunle carries a bundle of firewood, while Sidi is engrossed in the photographs of herself in the magazine. Baroka's first wife, Sadiku, startles Sidi. Sadiku tells Sidi that Baroka wants to marry her, which makes Lakunle angry. He tells Sidi not to listen, but Sidi insists that she's very powerful now that the stranger has brought her images to the village. Sadiku insists that if Sidi marries Baroka, she'll be very powerful—when Baroka dies, she'll be the new head wife. Sidi refuses and says that Baroka only wants to possess her beauty and keep it for himself. Sidi opens the magazine, shows the photographs to Sadiku, and laments that nobody ever complimented Sidi on her breasts. She calls Baroka old and leathery. Sadiku is shocked, but she invites Sidi to come to Baroka's for a feast anyway. Sidi laughs and says that the women who attend the suppers become wives or concubines the next day. Lakunle inserts himself into the conversation and says that Baroka is called "the fox" for a reason.

Riders to the sea

Riders to the Sea Summary

The play, set on an island off the coast of Ireland, begins with Nora bringing in a small bundle with her and telling Cathleen that these may be the clothes of their brother Michael. The young priest told her a body of a drowned man was found at Donegal, and the body might be Michael's. The sisters are scared to open the bundle of clothes because they do not want their mother, Maurya, to know: Michael has been missing for a week and the family had already lost five men to the sea. They hide the bundle in the turf loft of the cottage.Maurya is prepared for the funeral for Michael, with whiteboards for his coffin ready at the cottage. She enters the kitchen; she is a woman who is seen lamenting all the time and worrying that her sons will never come back from the sea. Maurya, Nora, and Cathleen discuss the last son, Bartley, who is also planning to go the sea to sell the family horses so they could get some money. Nora and Cathleen are convinced that Bartley should go to the fair at Galway to sell the animals, while Maurya is still hoping that the Priest will not allow him to go in such dangerous tides.Bartley enters the cottage looking for a new piece of rope. Maurya tries to stop him, but he says he wants to make a halter for the horses; clearly Bartley plans to go to the sea. Maurya again tries to dissuade him by showing him the whiteboards for Michael. Paying no heed, Bartley changes his clothes, asks his sisters to take care of the sheep, and leaves without receiving any blessings from his mother. It is a tradition in Ireland that the son receives the blessings of his mother before going anywhere, but Maurya breaks this fashion.Bartley leaves with a red mare and a grey pony tied behind. Cathleen then notices that he has not taken any food and tells Maurya to walk down to the well to give Bartley his food and the blessings. Maurya leaves using a stick that Michael brought, lamenting over how in her family, the old ones never leave anything behind for their heirs, despite that being the general custom.Once Maurya is gone, the girls retrieve the bundle of clothes from the loft to check if they are Michael's. Nora realizes that the stockings are truly Michael's, because she recognizes her own stitching on them. They count the number of stitches and arrive at the conclusion that Michael was dead and buried.The sisters hide the clothes again because they think that Maurya will be returning in a good mood since she got the chance to bless Bartley; however, Maurya comes back more distressed than ever. She tells her daughters that she saw Michael on the grey pony; she could not bless Bartley due to the shock. To calm her down, Nora and Cathleen show Maurya the clothes and tell her that Michael has had a clean burial. Maurya's laments are interrupted when islanders bring the body of Bartley into the cottage and tell the women that the grey pony knocked Bartley into the sea, where he drowned.Maurya gets on her knees near Bartley's body and sprinkles holy water on him. She finally resigns herself to her fate as she claims that she will finally sleep at night because she no longer has anyone to worry about: all the men of her family have died to the sea. The whiteboards that were supposed to be used for Michael's coffin will now be used to bury Bartley. Maurya prays that the souls of her husband, her husband's father, and four sons may rest in peace, and the curtains are drawn.