Oedipus Redeemed: Seeing through Listening

By Kalman J. Kaplan and Matthew B. Schwartz

An initial play, Oedipus in Jerusalem, related the narrative of Nathan, the biblical prophet, encountering the blinded Oedipus wandering alone outside of Thebes. Nathan brings him to Jerusalem to be tried at the Jewish Sanhedrin. The Greek playwright Sophocles is the prosecutor, and Nathan serves as the defense attorney. Oedipus is acquitted, but he refuses to accept his acquittal, shouting, "I am guilty! I am guilty of patricide and incest."Oedipus Redeemed focuses on Nathan and Sophocles combining forces to present Oedipus with two dialogues of historical/biblical characters within the play. The first contrasts the suicide of the Greek Zeno the Stoic after a minor mishap with the life affirmation expressed by the biblical Job after monumental losses. This is designed to uncover the possibility that Oedipus is experiencing shame rather than guilt (after all, he did not commit suicide until after he blinded himself). Nathan and Sophocles focus on the secondary psychological benefit Oedipus has received from insisting on his guilt, and on his coming to terms with the fact that he had blinded himself needlessly if he was innocent. The second dialogue between the biblical prophetess Judith and the blind Greek seer Teiresias focuses on the biblical story of Samson being betrayed by "following his eyes." Insight is contrasted with sight. Oedipus's surviving daughter Ismene reunites with Oedipus, telling him she loves and needs him. The play ends with Oedipus's return to the Sanhedrin, tentatively and tearfully accepting his acquittal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Jan 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532671968

Kalman J. Kaplan

Kalman J. Kaplan is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. Dr. Kaplan has published fourteen books and many articles and was awarded a grant from The John Templeton Foundation and Fulbright Foundation awards to develop a program in A Biblical Approach to Mental Health. Among Dr. Kaplan's books are Right to Die versus Sacredness of Life, The Fruit of Her Hands, A Psychology of Hope and Living Biblically.

Book preview

9781532671944.kindle.jpg

OEDIPUS REDEEMED

Seeing through Listening

KALMAN J. KAPLAN

Foreword by Matthew B. Schwartz

3872.png

Oedipus Redeemed

Seeing through Listening

Copyright ©

2019

Kalman J. Kaplan. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

, Eugene, OR

97401

.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-7194-4

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-7195-1

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-7196-8

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

09/17/15

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

Characters, Acts, and Scenes

Costumes

Acts and Scenes

Act I: Oedipus Rejects His Acquittal

Scene I-1: The decision of the Sanhedrin

Scene I-2: Oedipus leaves the courtroom in great distress

Scene I-3: Nathan meets with Sophocles at a cafe to try to understand Oedipus’s refusal to accept his acquittal.

Scene I-4: Nathan meets with Sophocles for a second time to continue the discussion.

Scene I-5: Nathan and Sophocles together come into Oedipus’s room. He is lying on his bed, disheveled.

Scene I-6: Sophocles is sitting with Oedipus in a side-room of the Sanhedrin. Nathan enters with the Vice-President of the Sanhedrin (The Av Bet Din),who is carrying a scroll.

Scene I-7: Nathan and Sophocles meet alone for a third time the next day at the same café at which they met before.

Scene I-8: Sophocles is sitting with Oedipus in a side-room of the Sanhedrin. Nathan enters with the Vice-President of the Sanhedrin (Av Bet Din), again carrying a scroll.

Scene I-9: Nathan meets with Sophocles for a fourth time in a courtyard outside the Sanhedrin to continue their discussion on how to help Oedipus accept his acquittal.

Scene I-10: One month later. A dialogue is staged for Oedipus between Job and Diogenes Laertius interpreting the dead Zeno prodded by Nathan and Sophocles in a small theatre-shaped room adjacent to the main court of the Sanhedrin. The meeting will be chaired by the Av Bet Din.

Scene I-11: The dialogue resumes after an afternoon meal, but this time Job and Diogenes Laertius are silent.

Scene I-12: Nathan and Sophocles meet alone for a fifth time the next afternoon at the same café as before to continue their discussion of how to help Oedipus emotionally accept his acquittal.

END OF ACT ONE

Act II: Can Oedipus accept his self-blinding?

Scene II-1: Nathan and Sophocles meet for a sixth time at the same café as before to continue their discussion of how to help Oedipus emotionally accept his acquittal.

Scene II-2: Nathan and Sophocles meet for a seventh time at the same café as before to continue their discussion of how to help Oedipus find a positive reason to live.

Scene II-3: Nathan and Sophocles meet for a eighth time at the same café as before to continue their discussion of how to help Oedipus deal with the loss of his eyes.

Scene II-4: One month later. A second dialogue is staged for Oedipus between Teiresias and the prophetess Deborah discussing the dead Samson, prodded by Nathan and Sophocles in a small theatre-shaped room adjacent to the main court of the Sanhedrin. The meeting will be chaired by the Av Bet Din.

Scene II-5: Nathan and Sophocles meet for a ninth time two days later at the same café they had met before to continue their discussion of how to help Oedipus emotionally accept his acquittal.

Scene II-6: Nathan and Sophocles come to Oedipus’s room the following week. Oedipus is lying in his bed.

Scene II-7: Ismene arrives at the inn where Nathan and Sophocles are staying. They come out to greet her.

Scene II-8: The next day, Nathan and Sophocles bring Ismene into Oedipus’s room. They leave her alone with her father. Oedipus is standing by the window.

Scene II-9: Nathan and Sophocles meet alone for a second time with Ismene two days later at the same café where they had met before.

Scene II-10: Nathan and Sophocles bring Ismene again to Oedipus. This time they sit quietly in a corner of the room.

Scene II-11: A return to the Sanhedrin

END OF PLAY

Dedication

Again, to my parents, Lewis C. Kaplan and Edith Saposnik Kaplan, both authors/translators in their own life who raised me with the self-confidence to follow my own path, to Moriah Markus-Kaplan, a fellow psychologist who has provided hospitality in Israel to further my understanding of Biblical versus Greek ways of thinking, and to my son Daniel Lewis Kaplan, also a psychologist who I often pestered if not bombarded with my insights in this regard when he was growing up.

I hope my descendants will find this play useful in their thinking and in their lives, and help them cope with any setbacks they may face rather than catastrophize them.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the comments and insights provided by Professor Michael Shapiro, Dr. Matthew Schwartz, Dr. Daniel Silverfarb, and Isabelle Proton, Esq. Michael read an early draft and supplied very useful comments on the structure of the play. Matthew provided a great deal of information regarding the actual workings of the Sanhedrin. Daniel brought the perspective of a trial attorney to the verdict Oedipus received from the Sanhedrin. Isabelle’s contribution was invaluable with regard to her insights into the difference between biblical and ancient Greek jurisprudence.

The help of Lori Thompson and Israel Izzy Cohen must also be acknowledged. Lori was alert to subtle nuances in the dialogue in the early workings of the play which hopefully made it much stronger. Izzy Cohen provided invaluable assistance with regard to finding a suitable image for the cover This work benefited very much from their efforts.

The author must also acknowledge Sophocles’ great trilogy, Oedipus The King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone and Aeschylus’ masterpiece, Prometheus Bound. We have abridged small passages of dialogue from the translations from the Greek presented in respective