In Aristotle's Poetics, a tragedy must be an imitation of life in the form of a serious story that is complete within itself. Tragedies must also evoke pity and fears in the audience. Oedipus Rex fits Aristotle's format of tragedy perfectly. When Tiresias was called to see Oedipus, he introduced himself to the audience as all knowing but he lacks sight. The two go back and forth with questions regarding the credibility of Tiresias as a blind soothsayer and the transparency of Oedipus the King. Oedipus challenges and vexes Tiresias to confess his fate to him. With every response of Tiresias, the audience receives more and more information of the murder of Laius, planting the seeds of fear and pity.
Connecting further with Aristotle's definition of a good tragedy, the superiority of the character is worth mentioning. Oedipus is highly esteemed in the city of Thebes because he possess the cleverness to solve the sphinx's riddles. Sophocles uses dramatic irony in the story to invoke a great character flaw in Oedipus when the audience learns of his fate. Oedipus lacks the acceptance and knowledge of fate after all the warnings from Tiresias. Since the audience knows the outcome of the story, one can make the conclusion that his ignorance is to blame for the tragic ending. Oedipus tried to change his fate, which ironically caused the inevitable tragedy.
Something that reaffirmed my beliefs about tragedies is how the townspeople of Thebes reacted to the tragedy of Oedipus. Not everyone was understanding of him. This connects to a Tedtalk we watched earlier this week by Alain de Botton. De Button claims that "it would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. he isn't a loser though he has lost." This directly correlates with Oedipus Rex because the townspeople failed to understand his misfortune and so he was cast out as a loser.
Connecting further with Aristotle's definition of a good tragedy, the superiority of the character is worth mentioning. Oedipus is highly esteemed in the city of Thebes because he possess the cleverness to solve the sphinx's riddles. Sophocles uses dramatic irony in the story to invoke a great character flaw in Oedipus when the audience learns of his fate. Oedipus lacks the acceptance and knowledge of fate after all the warnings from Tiresias. Since the audience knows the outcome of the story, one can make the conclusion that his ignorance is to blame for the tragic ending. Oedipus tried to change his fate, which ironically caused the inevitable tragedy.
Something that reaffirmed my beliefs about tragedies is how the townspeople of Thebes reacted to the tragedy of Oedipus. Not everyone was understanding of him. This connects to a Tedtalk we watched earlier this week by Alain de Botton. De Button claims that "it would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. he isn't a loser though he has lost." This directly correlates with Oedipus Rex because the townspeople failed to understand his misfortune and so he was cast out as a loser.