After examining Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, explain how Sophocles' ordering of events makes for an effective play.

This is an important question, since it implies a
distinction between a chronological narrative and a
plot. A chronological narrative merely reports
a sequence of events in the order in which they occurred.  Almost anyone can write such
a narrative. A plot, however, is the design a writer imposes on
such a bare narrative. Only talented writers can construct truly effective plots, as
Sophocles does in Oedipus Rex. Here is a brief account of the
chronological narrative from which Sophocles constructed his
plot:

• Laius, king of
  Thebes, is told by an oracle that when he has a son, the son will eventually kill
  him.


• When Laius does indeed have a son, he orders a
  servant to take the child into the countryside and kill
  him.


• The servant takes the child into the countryside but
  does not kill him. The baby is instead taken to the king of Corinth, who raises the boy
  as his own son. Oedipus grows up thinking that this king is his real
  father.


• When Oedipus becomes a man, he consults an
  oracle, who foretells that Oedipus will kill his own father and marry his own
  mother.


• Not wanting to kill his supposed parents, Oedipus
  leaves Corinth. While on the road, he argues with a stranger (Laius, king of Thebes) and
  kills him. He has thus unwittingly fulfilled one aspect of the oracle’s
  prophecy.


• Nearing Thebes, Oedipus meets the mysterious
  Sphinx, who poses a riddle to him that no one else has been able to solve. Oedipus
  solves the riddle, thereby freeing Thebes from the sickness and misfortunes imposed by
  the Sphinx.


• The grateful people of Thebes make Oedipus
  their king (since Laius, their previous king, has recently been killed by a stranger).
  Oedipus also marries Jocasta, the widow of Laius (thereby fulfilling the second of the
  oracle’s prophecies).


• Later, when new disease descends
  upon Thebes, Oedipus vows to discover its cause. An oracle instructs that the disease
  will not disappear until the murderer of Laius is found. Oedipus vows to discover the
  murderer’s identity (not realizing that he himself is the killer he
  seeks).


• Tiresias, a prophet, warns Oedipus not to pursue
  the matter. Oedipus chooses to seek a solution
  nonetheless.


• A messenger from Corinth reveals that the
  king of Corinth has recently died. Oedipus thus assumes that the prophecy that he would
  kill his own father was false.


• Further investigation
  reveals to Oedipus, however, that the child raised by the king of Corinth was Oedipus
  himself.


• Jocasta, understanding what has happened, leaves
  the stage and commits suicide.


• Oedipus thus learns the
  true story of his past and realizes that he has indeed killed his father and married his
  mother.


• Oedipus discovers the suicide of his mother /
  wife and, in grief, blinds himself. He then leaves Thebes, accompanied by his daughter,
  Antigone.

A play could easily be written that
presents the details of the story in precisely this chronological order.  The
plot of such a play would thus coincide with the
chronological narrative. Sophocles, however, chose a more
sophisticated and effective rearrangement, so that the audience learns the complicated
and devastating truth of the matter along with Oedipus himself. In the play's opening
lines, Oedipus has no idea why Thebes is plagued:

readability="11">

OEDIPUS
My children, latest generation
born from Cadmus,
why are you sitting here with wreathed sticks
in
supplication to me, while the city
fills with incense, chants, and cries of
pain?

Only as the play ends
will he discover that he is the cause of Thebes' suffering.