SOURCE: Dahl, Mary Karen. “The Victim and Catharsis.” In Political Violence in Drama: Classical Models, Contemporary Variations, pp. 33-56. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Dahl analyzes the function of hero sacrifice, subjugation, and scapegoating within a community as illustrated in Sophocle's Oedipus the King, Frisch's Andorra, and Sławomir Mrożek's The Prophets.

Oedipus: the Paradigm

Expulsion of malignant energies by catharsis is another way in which a community may be renewed. The victim is once again the center of the sacrifice, now serving as the vehicle through which evil is vented. Because dramatic images of catharsis focus attention on the social mechanism that encloses the hero, this [essay clarifies] the crucial issue of human freedom and individual power.

The discussion begins with a simple statement of the model, which Sophocles's Oedipus the King illustrates. The classical text also defines a way of representing...