Tragedy Measuring the Odyssey Though

Tragedy

Measuring the Odyssey

Though he was writing more than two thousand years ago, Aristotle's view on literature as he expounds them in his tract Poetics continue to be highly influential in the development and understanding of Western literature and drama. Much of this work is specifically concerned with the structure and characteristics of tragedy, which Aristotle describes using Sophocles' Oedipus Rex as an example text, and which he and the other ancient Greeks considered the highest form of both literature and drama. The various elements of a tragedy that Aristotle identifies, however, are largely applicable to other genres of literature as well. Homer's Odyssey, also written in the ancient Greek period (though the year of the writing is unknown, and the age of the oral story on which the written epic is based is even more nebulous), can be accurately described using Aristotle's theories and conventions, and in so doing it can be seen that Homer's epic is at best an imperfect tragedy.

One of the key characteristics of a good tragedy, according to Aristotle, is a reversal of fortune, "by which the action veers round to its opposite" (Aristotle 52a22). This occurs in Oedipus Rex when the messenger thinks his information will result in great joy and relief, but instead it creates immense heartache and pain. The complexity that is given to the plot due to this reversal is part of what makes tragedy both intellectually engaging and emotionally satisfying and cathartic. Without such a reversal, the end of the tragedy is apparent even in its beginning, and there is simply less dramatic impact in the plot overall. This is one reason that Aristotle did not approve of all tragedies or literature equally.

The Odyssey is not a tragedy, instead taking the form of an epic, but Aristotle's rules for tragedy can be applied here to demonstrate the power of certain of the identified characteristics of a tragedy. There is no reversal, at least not a sudden one, in the plot of this epic, though there is an overriding sense of somewhat ironic counter-purposes; Odysseus is on a journey home, but at every turn he is faced with more obstacles. He does not know it at the outset, but his journey home -- what he thinks is the end of his long time away due to the Trojan war -- is actually a challenge at least as great, if not greater. This is not really a reversal, however, but more of an ever-present juxtaposition of opposites. Because of the constant and ever-present nature of this juxtaposition, the dramatic impact of the "reversal" such as it is becomes hugely diminished. Aristotle desired a reversal because of the suddenness of the impact, which heightens the emotional impact of the plot. As a constant element, the juxtaposition of opposites is less emotional and more intellectual in its effect.

There are other details of both tragedies and epics that Aristotle identifies and describes in Poetics that could be used to draw a comparison between Oedipus Rex and the Odyssey, but even more effective for such a comparison are the direct statements Aristotle makes regarding the differences between epics and tragedies. Though Aristotle approves of epics and what they are able to accomplish and convey to their readers/hearers, he considers tragedy to be a higher form of art because it is necessarily more "refined" (Aristotle 62b2. Tragic plots are simpler and their stories shorter than epics, meaning the human emotion has been more finely reduced.