Mapping Language and Meaning in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex: A Voyant-Based Lexical, Semantic, and Contextual Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex through a combined lexical, semantic, and contextual approach, integrating traditional close reading with digital textual analysis using Voyant Tools. The research aims to reveal how the play’s linguistic choices, layered meanings, and cultural background collectively intensify its tragic effect. The methodology employs a mixed framework: the text of Oedipus Rex is processed through Voyant to examine word frequency, repetition, collocations, and lexical patterns, followed by qualitative interpretation through classical tragic theory and historical context. Semantic analysis focuses on irony, paradox, and shifting connotations within recurring thematic clusters such as light and darkness, sight and blindness, truth and ignorance, curse and pollution, and self and knowledge. These motifs often intersect and reverse in meaning, illustrating how concepts like sight become symbolically linked to blindness as the narrative unfolds. Digital analysis thus highlights linguistic patterns that may remain obscured through traditional reading alone. By combining computational evidence with human interpretive insight, this study uncovers deeper layers of significance within the text. Ultimately, it demonstrates the value of integrating digital tools like Voyant with conventional literary analysis, offering a model for enriched study of classical and literary works.