Elements of Tragedy or Oedipus Rex is a perfect example of Tragedy

In the golden age of Greek dramas, Sophocles wrote an outstanding tragedy named Oedipus Rex. Over the centuries,
Oedipus Rex has been regarded as the Greek tragedy par excellence. In the Poetics, Aristotle listed many requirements of
a successful tragedy.
According to Aristotle
“Tragedy, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with
each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of
narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions”.

In this definition he outlines the major principles of tragedy. Oedipus Rex is Aristotle's ideal tragedy because it fulfills so
many requirements for a successful tragedy. The play is a typical classical tragedy because it has the element of
tragic setting, atmosphere and mood, tragic character with tragic hamartia, tragic plot design moving to tragic
disintegration, and therefore the tragic realization by the character and audience. The dialogue as well as the
language of the chorus also emphasizes the tragic message about the tragic life of the ill-fated Oedipus.

Oedipus Rex is an ancient Greek tragedy which is so typical of the classical tragedies that Aristotle took it as
an example to define and illustrate the qualities of a tragedy. Aristotle's definition is a descriptive one (and not
prescriptive); the definition of tragedy has been modified because many great tragedies have been written
since without being confined to the Aristotelian features. However, it is feasible to first see this tragedy in terms
of Aristotle's definition.

Aristotle defined tragedy in terms of its plot, character and action. The plot of a tragedy must consist of one,
great and complete action. Each part of the play must contribute to the final tragic consequences and effect.
The cause and effect must be logically linked: no external force must intervene. The main tragic character must
possess great status and ideal qualities; but he must also have a weakness, though not a moral flaw —this
weakness is called ‘hamartia'. The consequence of the character's own error of judgment or of his wrong
action must bring the fall, from which there is no escape. This should give us the sense of inevitability, making
us accept and realize the reality and the weakness of the character. The reversal and discovery must reveal to
the character and the audience the cause of the character's undoing and downfall. It should not be the doing of
the external forces, like supernatural forces or of fate and chance.

Besides the tragic plot, we have a typically tragic character, Oedipus. Oedipus is a tragic character because he
is a great man with some ideals and with a commitment to find out the truth and cure the problem besetting is
country. But like a tragic character, he has a tragic weakness. His tragic weakness is that in the confidence of
what he knows or can know he becomes too careless and disrespectful towards the gods, the fate that the
oracles have disclosed for him: he defies to any inner voice and wisdom with regards to fate and destiny.

Another tragic element in the play Oedipus Rex is its tragic atmosphere. From beginning to end, we are
exposed to very serious and frightening situations. The dramatic conflict among the characters and the
dramatic tension that builds in our minds never settles down; and there is no comic element, even like in
Shakespearean tragedies. Like in a typical tragedy, the dramatist has designed even the dialogue so carefully
as to create and sustain a very serious tone and mood throughout. The hopes that always lead us to fear, and
the anxiety that always leads us to frustration finally contributes to the catharsis. Our false hopes and wishes
as prompted and guided by the chorus finally collapse into the tragic purification of emotions, which is called
catharsis or purgation (in the audience), along with the tragic change in the characters. The chorus is also a
corollary element that contributes considerably in the tragic characteristics of this drama.

 Hamartia:
Hamartia is the tragic flaw in the protagonist. Aristotle also outlined the characteristics of a good tragic hero. He
must be "better than we are," as Oedipus is the man who is superior to the average man in some way, he is superior
not only because of social standing, but also because he is smart he is the only person who could solve the Sphinx's
riddle. At the same time, a tragic hero must evoke both pity and fear, and Aristotle claims that the best way to do this
is if he is imperfect. As Oedipus character is a mixture of good and evil and is not merely; he is a clever man, but he
is blind to the truth and refuses to believe Tiresias’s warnings and shows his proud and judgmental nature by saying
these words
This is the man
you think you can destroy
no doubt,
to stand up there with Creon, once he’s king
But I think you and your conspirator in this
will regret trying to drive me from the state.

 A whole plot:
Oedipus Rex has a whole plot with a beginning, middle, and end.

 Incentive moment
The incentive moment or beginning starts when a plague hits the country and Oedipus made promises to
save it from any defilement and send Creon (brother of Jocaste) to oracle for solution.
I’ve been shedding many tears
and, in my wandering thoughts, exploring
many pathways. After a careful search
I grasped the only help that I could find
and acted on it. So I have sent away
my brother-in-law, son of Menoeceus,
Creon, to Pythian Apollo’s shrine,
And oracle asked them to banish the unknown murderer of last king, Laius, from city. After returning from oracle
Creon said
Laius was killed. And now the god is clear:
those murderers, he tells us, must be punished,
whoever they may be.
In this beginning problem is stated and the way is developed to solve this problem.

 Climax
In the middle, or climax, a messenger arrives from Corinth and told that Polybus is not real father of
Oedipus and Jocaste realizes the truth and leaves while Oedipus still ignorant of truth persists inquiry and
called the shepherd who gave the child to messenger soon Oedipus and everybody came to know the truth.
Oedipus’ downfall started after the climax caused by earlier incidents.

 Resolution
 In The end, or resolution, Oedipus laments on his fate and is banished from city at his own insistence.
Ending do not lead to other incidents outside the compass of the play and therefore solve the problem
created during the incentive moment.

 Unities:
Aristotle crafted three unities or rules for how to make a perfect tragedy. These unities were the unity of time, unity
of action and unity of space.

 Unity of action
The plot is “complete,” having “unity of action.” the plot is structurally self-contained, with the
incidents bound together by internal necessity, each action leading inevitably to the next with no outside intervention
and do not have subplots and everything contributes to the play as a whole. All the attention is focused on a single
theme___the investigation made by Oedipus into the murder of Laius and the discovery of truth.
We can see the unity of action in this chart.

Climax

Anagnorisis

Peripeteia (Herdsman and

Messengers arrives from Corinth: Messenger story)

Polybus not real father of Oedipus Catastrophe

Jocasta tells story of murder; Oedipus reporting of Jocasta’s

send a herdsman suicide & oedipus blinding

Oedipus and Creon quarrel

Teiresias accuses Oedipus scene of suffering with Oedipus puts curses on

murderer of Laius Oedipus and children

Oracle find murderer of Laius

Incentive moment Resolution

(plague and promise of Oedipus) (Departure of Oedipus
ends plague)

 Unity of time
The plot is “of a certain magnitude,” it means it have unity of time though it refers to past events,
but tell all the story of what happened in one day.

 Unity of space
Plot has a unity of space. The entire action of the play takes place at royal palace in the city of Thebes. There is only
one scene throughout the play.

 Complex plot:
 The plot may be either simple or complex, although according to Aristotle complex is better. He argues that
the best plots combine peripeteia and anagnorisis as part of their cause-and-effect chain.
 Peripeteia: (reversal)
In Oedipus Rex peripeteia (reversal) occurs when a messenger arrives from Corinth and tries to cheer
Oedipus and to dispel the fear of marrying his mother and tells him that Polybus is not real father of Oedipus
but it produces really opposite results by arising the quest of truth in [Link] he said in 160 th line of scene
III
Then let it break,
whatever it is. As for myself,
no matter how base born my family,
I wish to know the seed from where I came.

 Anagnorisis :(recognition)
Peripeteia leads directly to the anagnorisis when Oedipus find out the truth and comes from darkness to light
from ignorance to knowledge when shepherd discloses that he is the murderer of his father and husband of
his mother.
Ah, so it all came true. It’s so clear now.
O light, let me look at you one final time,
I, Oedipus, Oedipus damned in his birth, in his marriage damned.
Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand

 Catastrophe (change in fortune)

Anagnorisis in turns creates the catastrophe, and Oedipus turns into a culprit from a king as choragos said
in last lines
Men of Thebes, look upon Oedipus,
This is the King
who solved the famous riddle.
He was the most powerful of men.
no mortal eyes but looked on him with envy,
Yet in the end ruin swept over him.

 Catharsis
Catastrophe then leads to the final “scene of suffering” where he makes himself blind and was banished from
the city which results in catharsis which is pity and fear of spectacles. Pity for Oedipus and fear that none can
be happy and happiness can never last till the last day of a man’s life and a single event can turn a happy man
into a miserable person.
So it is concluded that Oedipus Rex is an excellent example of Aristotle's theory of tragedy. The play has the perfect
Aristotelian tragic plot consisting of peripeteia, anagnorisis and catastrophe; it has the perfect tragic character that
suffers from happiness to misery due to hamartia (tragic flaw) and the play evokes pity and fear that produces the
tragic effect, catharsis.