1. How is Sophocles' Odysseus different from the Odysseus of the Iliad and Odyssey? How is he similar?
2. What kind of hero is Philoctetes? How is he like or unlike the heroes and heroines of the other works we have read?
3. How does Neoptolemus change during the play? What does he learn?
4. How does the role of the chorus in this play differ from choruses in the other tragedies we have read?
5. How do visual effects contribute to the power of this play?
6. Why do you think Sophocles has Heracles appear at the end of the play? What is the effect of his appearance?
7. What is the significance of the bow? What do characters say about it, and how does it affect their actions?