Oedipus (Dryden play) the drama were inferior to the original work by Sophocles. In our Age, Corneille has attempted it, and it appears by his Preface, with great success: But a judicious Reader will easily observe, how much the Copy is inferiour to the Original. Dryden disapproves of the way Corneille has treated the subject, but not the subplot – a love story involving Theseus and Dirce: in "Oedipus, a Tragedy", Dryden himself uses a love story as subplot. According to Dryden, however, the French dramatist failed to create a heroic Oedipus. Instead of showing Oedipus as a just and merciful monarch, Corneille
Oedipus at Colonus of guilt; the fact that Oedipus is "rationally innocent" – that he sinned unknowingly – decreases his guilt, allowing his earthly sufferings to serve as sufficient expiation for his sins. Darice Birge has argued that "Oedipus at Colonus" can be interpreted as a heroic narrative of Oedipus rather than a tragic one. It can be viewed as a transitional piece from the Oedipus of "Oedipus Rex" whose acts were abominable to the Oedipus we see at the end of "Oedipus at Colonus", who is so powerful that he is sought after by two separate major cities. The major image used