Aristotle’s View Of Tragedy As It Pertains To Oedipus

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Aristotle's Poetics is the first written attempt to theorize the complex experience of Greek tragedy. Aristotle used Oedipus as his chief example to define the characteristics that a tragedy should posses. He defined tragedy as an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude ""¦in language a 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"¦"�(Aristotle on Tragedy 1).

In Aristotle's view every tragedy; therefore, must have six aspects, which determine its quality: plot, characters, diction, thought, spectacle, and melody. Almost all of these characteristics are fully portrayed in Sophocles's Oedipus.

Aristotle considers the plot to be the most important aspect of a tragedy, which he ""¦defines as "˜the arrangement of the incidents'"�(McManus 1).

Aristotle also wrote that the plot must consists of several key factors including; a hero(ine) who has distinguished him/herself as "˜great' in some significant way. Additionally the hero must commit hamartia or some sort of a violation and there must be a plot twist, also known as peripeteia, as the result of the hamartia. In conclusion the hero must recognize that his or hers own actions are responsible for the sudden change in fortune, and finally a tragedy must conclude with a catharsis or a purging of emotions by the hero; as well as, the audience. In a tragedy the hero usually, but not always, should suffers death or major injury caused by the actions that they themselves have taken.

All of these characteristics can easily be found in Oedipus and some of these characteristics can be found in more then one place in the story. Oedipus, the main character, was born into royalty with the anticipation of being king one day, and even after he was thrown away by his parents his adapted parents were also royalty and he was still destined to be king. This distinguished Oedipus as great in a very significant way. Oedipus also committed hamartia when he tried to change his fate by running away form his adapted parents, because the oracle told him that he was going to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus was not aware that he was adapted and to save himself from committing these horrible actions he ran away from home. By his running away the plot of the story turns when Oedipus comes upon his birth father and not knowing who the stranger is, kills him. Also later on in the story when Oedipus becomes king, he is told that he has to find the killer of the old king/his father or the town will parish. Oedipus being a concerned ruler says that he will find and punish the man responsible not realizing that he was that man which is just another example of peripeteia.

Oedipus then peruses on to call for the blind seer, who tells him that he killed the king and all of a sudden Oedipus realizes that he has committed exactly the crimes that he was trying to run away from, this shows Oedipus's anagnorosis. Finally, Oedipus finds out that his mother/wife has just committed suicide by hanging herself over her bed. Oedipus realizes that has committed the exact crimes that the oracle warned him of and the ones he was running away from. And then true to a tragic hero he gouges out his eyes with his own hands to show the pain and suffering that he has caused to all; as well as, signify the catharsis that the audience should be going thru.

Aristotle considered the characters to be the second most important part of a tragedy. He wrote that the characters have to have certain aspects that make them tragic heroes. These characters must have "˜"¦moral purpose, consistency to reality; as well as, to themselves"¦"�(Tragedy: An Introduction 1), and have appropriate valor. Oedipus portrays most if not all these characteristics. He is very realistic in the actions and the mistakes he makes, he is a wise and good leader, however not realizing that his fairness will wind up causing more harm then good to himself, and his character remains the same through out the story. He is a tough warrior who winds up fighting and killing a whole group of men, including his father and he stays true to himself and gouges out his eyes because he realizes that he did exactly what he was attempting to avoid.

Aristotle also wrote that a comedy has to have diction and the ""¦expression of the meaning of the words which are proper and appropriate to the plot, character, and end of the tragedy"� (McManus 3). It is fairly impossible for people to get a true sense of what Aristotle meant by this because most of the works that people are reading are translations of the original works. In fact most of these translations may even be second or third generation translations, which means that most of the proper language is lost in the process of translation. However even reading the translations it can clearly be seen that the word choices that were used to write Oedipus are very formal and has a great deal of meaning.

Overall Oedipus appears to be a perfect example of what Aristotle would define as a tragedy. It seems that many of the principals that Aristotle had established about tragedy apply to Homer's play. Oedipus appears to have all of the incidents arranged to make sense of what the story is all about. The plot is fairly simple but the explanation of the story is a bit complex and stays true to form. The characters portray all of the characteristics that Aristotle talks about, including being "great"�, having virtues and valor, and winding up hurting themselves and others around them by their own actions.

Works Cited Aristotle on Tragedy.

http://www.planetpapers.com/assets/58.html McManus. Barbara F. Outline of Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy in the Poetics.

http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html Tragedy: An Introduction http://wwwuvm.edu~1schnell/eng121/tragedy.html Bibliography Greek Tragedy: Early History http://www.Stemnet.nf.ca/~hblake/tragedy1.html Ingram Baywater. Aristotle's Poetics wysiwyg://3http://www.academic.brook1"¦du/english/melani/cs65/poetics.html