Reputation
Along with Seneca's other plays, Oedipus was regarded as a model of classical drama in Elizabethan England. The translator Alexander Neville regarded the play as a work of moral instruction. He said of the play "mark thou ... what is meant by the whole course of the History: and frame thy lyfe free from such mischiefes"
In recent times, A. J. Boyle in his 1997 book Tragic Seneca: An Essay in the Theatrical Tradition rejects the criticism of T. S. Eliot that Oedipus, like the other plays of Seneca, is simplistically peopled by stock characters. He says that "In the Oedipus, for example, it is hard to name any stock character except the messenger." The play, in its theme of powerlessness against stronger forces has been described as being as "relevant today in a world filled with repeated horrors against those who are innocent, as it was in ancient times"
Read more about this topic: Oedipus (Seneca)
Famous quotes containing the word reputation:
“The esteem of good men is the reward of our worth, but the reputation of the world in general is the gift of our fate.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“The reputation of a man is like his shadow; it sometimes follows and sometimes precedes him, sometimes longer and sometimes shorter than his natural size.”
—French Proverb. Quoted in Dictionary of Similes, ed. Frank J. Wilstach (1916)
“Men will not give up their privilege of helplessness without a struggle. The average man has a carefully cultivated ignorance about household matters—from what to do with the crumbs to the grocer’s telephone number—a sort of cheerful inefficiency which protects him better than the reputation for having a violent temper.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)