Tragedy of Oedipus Rex Many People Understand

Tragedy of Oedipus Rex

Many people understand Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex, is a tragedy but what they may not know is that Aristotle established the notion of the tragic drama and Oedipus Rex fits it perfectly. The ancient drama serves as an excellent example of what a tragic play looks like. According to Aristotle, the hero of a dramatic play can must be noble or of royalty. Because he is noble, he is often perceived of in an extraordinary in some way. This is certainly the case with Oedipus. His people love and respect him primarily because he solved the riddle of the Sphinx. Besides being extraordinary, a tragic hero must vacillate between two extremes and reveal his tragic flaw and eventually experience a catharsis. Finally, the hero must evoke a sense of pity or sympathy from the audience before the play's conclusion. Oedipus Rex fulfills these requirements.

One of the reasons Oedipus Rex is still read today is because of its ability to reach the audience. We do not care when this play was written because the message is timeless. The tragedy is as painful today as it was thousands of years ago. Michael Walton maintains the play is "arguably the most important tragedy in all of classical literature" (Walton). This is because of the king himself and his qualities. Aristotle's Poetics defines a tragic hero as someone of great renown existing between two emotional extremes. Oedipus fits this model perfectly. With this aspect of the hero's character, we see his humanity. This is crucial to the audience understanding and relating to him on some level. This is important because the audience needs to understand that while the hero may be great in some respects, he is not perfect. He is like everyone else in that he is not purely good or evil. He is real and genuine and this makes his "misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty" (Aristotle XIII). This bit of humanity drives the plot of play as the hero drifts from one emotional extreme to another. This also forces him to make poor decisions, which compounds his bad luck. Like many, he does not know when to stop pressing his luck. Walton writes the drama is tragic because Oedipus "appears to have everything, and by doing nothing beyond seeking truth, loses everything" (Walton) and this "touches a universal anxiety" (Walton). The king is limited by his humanity but this is not his entire problem.

Oedipus adheres to Aristotle's definition because he fails to hear what others are telling him. He makes bad decisions after he becomes obsessed with his own desires. In a word, he becomes selfish and stops thinking about anything other than himself. He is distracted from what actually matters. Curiosity gets the best of Oedipus and he becomes arrogant. He does not listen to Teiresias when warns him of unintended consequences. Oedipus remembers the Sphinx's riddle and how everyone respects him because of it and blames Teiresias for being a "wicked old man" (Sophocles I.i.118) with "no feeling at all" (I.i.119). Teiresias offers Oedipus firm advice but it does not matter. Oedipus has lost interest in what others have to say and is acting on his own now. Teiresias tells him he is the "pollution of this country" (I.i.135) and Oedipus simply ignores him. Oedipus also ignores Iocaste and perceives her as a nagging wife as she tries to reason with him. He dismisses her advice and, in turn, becomes the nag constantly probing her about the three highways. He cannot stop himself once he begins down the path of searching. He tells his wife, "I will not listen; the truth must be made known" (II.iii.146) and refuses to be reasoned with on any level. He literally turns on her and says:

The Queen, like a woman, is perhaps ashamed

To think of my low origin. But I

Am a child of luck; I cannot be dishonored . . .

How could I wish that I were someone else?

How could I not be glad to know my birth? (II.iii.159-60, 164-5)

Oedipus allows his distraction to completely remove his reasonability. Oedipus was not a bad man and this allows readers to see how he single-handedly destroyed his life one decision at a time. It is also worth noting that he did not intend to hurt anyone. However, this also teaches us that intensions amount to nothing at the end of the day. The search for truth is heroic indeed but to go after it blindly with no notion of your own past is simply asking for trouble, as Aristotle pointed out in Poetics. Oedipus is more human than he wants to believe and this comes back to hurt him more than anyone else.

The tragedy lies in the fact that as great as he is, Oedipus cannot escape his humanity. This is another aspect of the drama that adheres to Aristotle's description of tragedy. Aristotle knew that the connection between the character and the audience was critical and with Oedipus, we have that connection. Jennifer Lewin writes that Oedipus' faults "make him less than perfect but not blameworthy in any moral sense" (Lewin). Moses Hadas agrees, saying Oedipus does his best to avoid anything horrific from happening but he commits crimes regardless and "unwittingly" (Hadas xii). Hadas also states that the play is a "glorification" (Hadas xii) of the king rather than a condemnation. At the play's end, we can still believe that Oedipus was "admirable for his leadership skills and noble intentions" (Lewin) but he was still "imperfect for his overconfidence and harsh treatment of others" (Lewin). He "inspires pity and terror because of his ability to endure misfortune" (Lewin). Hadas points out that while Oedipus does behave imprudently, he does not deserve the punishment he receives at the play's conclusion. However, his actions do support Aristotle's definition of a tragedy because the audience experiences a catharsis. Oedipus might have been obsessed and arrogant but he chooses to leave Thebes and allow the people to get on with their lives without him. At this point, the play comes full circle.