Using the notes you took while reading Oedipus Rex, select two of the themes or motifs from the list to focus on in your 3 page essay. You might choose to explain how a motif helps to build one of the themes, or look at two themes and how they are developed through the play.

• Truth vs. the appearance of truth [theme]
• Blindness vs. vision (sometimes second sight) [motif]
• Curiosity vs. ignorance (sometimes willful) [theme]
• Knowledge vs. misunderstanding [motif]
• Fate and free will: do the gods dictate these awful deeds? [theme]