Rita Doves The Darker Face of the Earth and how it is a modern greek tragedy

The Darker Face of the Earth : Greek Tragedy or Slave Narrative

Rita Dove 's The Darker Face of the Earth is basically a recounting of the Oedipus drama in an African American context taken from the slave era . While it poses the possibility of being a Greek tragedy through its emphasis on Greek motifs and themes , in truth Dove 's embodiment of American culture in her play taps into a deeper darker concept Augustus plays the role of Oedipus very well through the narrative , but his character is much more complex in that

he carries the contemporary controversial burden of race , and the plight of slavery . Oedipus when he kills his father and beds his mother he merely corrupts the family and monarchy that had turned its back on him and fulfills a prophecy The tragedy in the original Oedipus play is based on the prophecy that the protagonist will kill his father and bed his mother , but in Dove 's play the tragedy stems from America 's original sin of slavery . This contrast in themes ultimately relieves The Darker Face of the Earth from being labeled simply as a Greek tragedy but through the primal themes it adopts from the Oedipus play in collaboration with complex ideology of the Antebellum , Dove 's play reveals dark truths embedded slavery and the American class system making it undeniable that the play is a slave narrative and not a contemporary Greek Tragedy

The Oedipus tragedy is arguably too familiar in the minds...