Comparative Analysis in Drama
Senior 6 · Literature in English
Comparative Analysis in Drama
5 lessons
Lesson 3 of 5
African and European Plays: Oedipus the King and The Gods Are Not to Blame
25 min
Let's begin
Around 429 BCE, in Athens, Sophocles staged Oedipus the King, the story of a king who sets out to find the murderer whose crime has brought a plague on his city, and discovers that the murderer is himself. In 1968, in the middle of the Nigerian Civil War, the Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi retold the same story in a Yoruba kingdom and gave it a title that answers Sophocles back: The Gods Are Not to Blame. Comparing an original with an adaptation is one of the most revealing exercises in literature, because every change the adapter makes is a choice.
Sophocles: the original
Oedipus, King of Thebes, sends to the oracle of Apollo to learn why a plague is killing his people. The answer: the murderer of the former king, Laïus, lives in the city. Oedipus vows to find him. Step by step, through the blind prophet Teiresias, his wife Jocasta, a messenger from Corinth and an old shepherd, he learns that the man he killed long ago at a meeting of three roads was Laïus, his own father, and that Jocasta, his wife, is his mother. Jocasta hangs herself; Oedipus blinds himself. Here is how he speaks in two key moments, in Richard Jebb's translation:
OEDIPUS It must not be that, with such clues in my grasp, I should fail to bring my birth to light.
Jebb's translation (1917), when Jocasta begs him to stop searching
OEDIPUS Apollo, friends, Apollo was he that brought these my woes to pass, these my sore, sore woes: but the hand that struck the eyes was none save mine, wretched that I am!
after he has blinded himself
CHORUS Dwellers in our native Thebes, behold, this is Oedipus, who knew the famed riddle, and was a man most mighty; on whose fortunes what citizen did not gaze with envy? Behold into what a stormy sea of dread trouble he hath come! Therefore, while our eyes wait to see the destined final day, we must call no one happy who is of mortal race, until he hath crossed life's border, free from pain.
the end of the play
Rotimi: the adaptation
The Gods Are Not to Blame (first performed 1968) is still in copyright, so here is a summary in Ganzaa's words. The play is set in the Yoruba kingdom of Kutuje. When a son is born to King Adetusa and Queen Ojuola, the Ifa priest Baba Fakunle foretells that the boy will kill his father and marry his mother, and the baby is sent away to die. Years later a stranger, Odewale, comes to Kutuje, frees it from the people of Ikolu who have conquered it, is made king and marries the widowed queen. When a plague strikes, Odewale searches for the old king's killer. He learns that the old man he killed in a quarrel over farmland, after the man had insulted his tribe, was his father. Ojuola kills herself, Odewale blinds himself and leaves the kingdom with his children. Before he goes, he insists that the gods should not be blamed: his own weakness, a hot temper roused above all by insults to his tribe, brought him down.
Definition
- adaptation: a new version of an existing work, changed for a new place, time, medium or audience.
- oracle: a sacred source of prophecy, such as Apollo's shrine at Delphi or the Yoruba Ifa divination system.
- chorus: in Greek drama, a group who sing and comment on the action, often speaking for the community.
- anagnorisis (recognition): the moment a tragic hero discovers the truth; peripeteia (reversal): the sudden change of fortune that follows.
- allegory: a story whose events stand for something else, often political, as some readers take Rotimi's play to stand for the Nigerian Civil War.
The same story in two worlds
Comparing point by point
| Point | Oedipus the King | The Gods Are Not to Blame |
|---|---|---|
| World of the play | Greek city-state; the gods of Olympus and Apollo's oracle | Yoruba kingdom; Ifa divination, Yoruba proverbs, drumming and dance |
| Structure | Begins late: the past is uncovered in one day; a chorus comments between episodes | Opens with a prologue that acts out the prophecy and the birth, so the audience knows the secret from the start |
| The hero's flaw | Pride, anger and the urge to know at any cost | Anger, especially at insults to his tribe; distrust of people from other groups |
| Fate and responsibility | Apollo brought the woes to pass, though Oedipus's own hand struck his eyes | The title itself puts the blame on human weakness, not on the gods |
| Language | Formal verse (in Jebb, dignified prose); long speeches and choral odes | English shaped by Yoruba idiom and proverbs; songs and dance |
| Message to its audience | Call no mortal happy until life ends free from pain | Read in its time as a warning against ethnic hatred in a nation at war with itself |
The comparison shows how an adaptation can keep a story's skeleton while changing its meaning. Sophocles leaves us with a mystery: a man destroyed by a fate he tried to avoid, yet noble in his search for truth. Rotimi moves the weight from fate to character, and from the gods to society. By making the old man's insult to Odewale's tribe the spark of the killing, he connects the ancient tragedy to the divisions of his own country. Both plays rely on dramatic irony, but Rotimi strengthens it: because his prologue shows the prophecy, the audience watches every one of Odewale's proud claims knowing exactly where they will lead.
Worked example
A model comparative paragraph (point: who is to blame)
The two plays give different answers to the question of responsibility, and Rotimi announces his answer in his title. Sophocles holds fate and freedom in tension: after blinding himself, Oedipus cries that "Apollo … brought these my woes to pass", yet insists that "the hand that struck the eyes was none save mine". The gods foretold the crime, but Oedipus chose to pursue the truth even when Jocasta begged him to stop, so he is both victim and agent. Rotimi, by contrast, deliberately tips the balance towards human weakness. His hero kills the old man because his tribe has been insulted, and his anger flares again and again during the search, so that the audience sees the flaw at work. Whereas Sophocles' chorus ends by warning that no mortal can be called happy before death, Rotimi's hero ends by refusing to blame the gods. Written while Nigeria was at war along ethnic lines, the adaptation turns a tragedy of fate into a warning about how quickly suspicion between peoples can lead to bloodshed.
Tip
Comparing an original and an adaptation? Ask three questions. What did the adapter keep? What did he change? Why, given his time and audience? The third question earns the marks.
Warning
- Don't call Rotimi's play a translation. It is an adaptation, with new characters, setting, language and emphasis.
- Don't say Oedipus "deserves" his fate. Greek tragedy rarely works as simple punishment; discuss the mix of fate and choice.
- The civil war reading is an interpretation. Present it as one ("many critics read…"), with evidence from the play.
TED-Ed: "What really happened to Oedipus?" by Stephen Esposito. Notice how the video presents the roles of the oracle and of Oedipus's own choices, then compare with Rotimi's title.
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Practice
- List three events that Rotimi keeps from Sophocles and three things he changes.
- What is the effect of Rotimi's prologue, which shows the prophecy at the start?
- Explain the chorus's final words: "we must call no one happy who is of mortal race, until he hath crossed life's border, free from pain".
- Define anagnorisis and identify the moment of recognition in either play.
- How does Rotimi make the story African? Give three examples.
- "The gods are to blame in Sophocles; man is to blame in Rotimi." How far do you agree? (about 300 words)
Show answersHide answers
- Kept: the prophecy, the abandoned baby, the killing of the father, saving the city, marriage to the queen, the plague, the search, the queen's suicide, the self-blinding (any three). Changed: the Yoruba setting and Ifa oracle; the Ikolu invaders instead of the Sphinx; the quarrel over farmland and the tribal insult; the prologue; Yoruba language and music; the emphasis on character rather than fate (any three).
- The audience knows the truth from the start, so the play is full of dramatic irony: we watch Odewale move towards a fate we already know.
- Fortune can change at any moment, so no one should be called happy until he has died without suffering; Oedipus, once envied by all, is proof.
- The hero's discovery of the truth: for example, when the old shepherd's evidence shows Oedipus that he killed his father and married his mother.
- The Yoruba kingdom of Kutuje; Ifa divination and the priest Baba Fakunle; Yoruba names, proverbs, songs and drumming; the tribal quarrel.
- Answers will vary. Strong answers note that Sophocles also stresses Oedipus's choices, and that Rotimi still keeps the prophecy.
Sources and credits
- Oedipus the King by Sophocles, translated by Richard C. Jebb (1917 edition), via Wikisource: public domain.
- Summary and analysis of The Gods Are Not to Blame by Ola Rotimi (in copyright): written by Ganzaa; no text from the play is reproduced.
- Image: Theatre of Epidaurus, Zde, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Video: What really happened to Oedipus?, Stephen Esposito, TED-Ed, embedded from YouTube.
- Plot diagram, tables, model paragraph and practice written by Ganzaa.
- This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.