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Assignment Of Drama (I) Submitted to: Ms. Hasna Tariq Submitted by: Fatima Noor Roll no. 11 BS. English (5 th semester) Session 2013-2017 The Women University Multan

Plot of Oedipus Rex is best tragic plot according to Aristotle

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Page 1: Plot of Oedipus Rex is best tragic plot according to Aristotle

Assignment Of Drama (I)

Submitted to:

Ms. Hasna Tariq

Submitted by:

Fatima Noor

Roll no. 11

BS. English (5th semester)

Session 2013-2017

The Women University Multan

Page 2: Plot of Oedipus Rex is best tragic plot according to Aristotle

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.

Aristotle's reasons are clear: to be the perfect tragedy the play must have a perfect plot and All the characteristics of perfect plot in ideal tragedy are present in Sophocles’ drama Oedipus Rex.

Here I am going to justify that plot of Oedipus Rex have all characteristics of Aristotelian tragedy

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.

Page 3: Plot of Oedipus Rex is best tragic plot according to Aristotle

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

Incentive momentThe 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.

ClimaxIn 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.

ResolutionIn 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

Page 4: Plot of Oedipus Rex is best tragic plot according to Aristotle

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.

Page 5: Plot of Oedipus Rex is best tragic plot according to Aristotle

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 Oedipus.as he said in 160th 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;

Page 6: Plot of Oedipus Rex is best tragic plot according to Aristotle

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.

.

Works cited

“Aristotle’s theory of poetry and the fine arts” Trans. S.H. Butcher Barbara McManus “Outline of Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy in the POETICS”

The College of New Rochelle, November 1999

William McGrath “classic note on Oedipus Rex” Ball State University press Sophocles’” Oedipus Rex” trans by “ Ian Johnston of Vancouver Island

University,” published by richer resources publications.