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Sophocles' Oedipus the King is a tragedy containing all the necessary elements of drama. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles carefully creates plot, character, theme, diction, and spectacle that are consistent with a drama. Further, Sophocles' work is created to be performed, rather than read, consistent with a drama.
Oedipus the King is clearly a tragedy. In the traditional Aristotelian definition of a tragedy, the story is an "imitation in dramatic form of an action that is serious and complete, with incidents arousing pity and fear wherewith it affects a catharsis of such emotions. The language used is pleasurable and throughout appropriate to the situation in which it is used. The chief characters are noble personages... And the actions they perform are noble actions." Oedipus' marriage to his mother arouses pity for his fate, and evokes real human fears of incest, and the idea of a predetermined fate. Oedipus is a true tragic hero, in that his noble and intelligent, even solving the Riddle of the Sphinx. Bliss notes, a tragedy results in "an unhappy catastrophe," which in Oedipus the King...
In the plot of Oedipus the King, the main conflict is within Oedipus himself, who tries to deny his own fate. He is warned by oracles that he will kill his father and marry his mother, but leaves Corinth in order to find a life for himself. There, he kills King Laius (his father), and eventually marries the widow of Laius, Jocasta (his mother), without knowledge that they are his father and mother. Eventually, Oedipus and Jocasta learn that they are mother and son, and the distraught Jocasta commits suicide, while Oedipus becomes a beggar and blinds himself in his anguish.
Another key element of drama is the tragic flaw, defined as "the flaw or defect in a tragic hero that is the cause of his or her downfall" (Bliss). In Oedipus the King, Oedipus' tragic flaw is his intellect, and his pride in this intellect that causes him to disregard the warnings…
Works Cited
Bliss, Curtis Nehring. Elements of Drama. Introduction to Literature Online. 04 June 2004. http://www.hcc.cc.il.us/online/engl111/drama.htm
Reuben, Paul P. Appendix H: Elements of Drama - A Brief Introduction. PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project. 04 June 2004. http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/AXH.htmL
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Translated by F. Storr. 04 June 2004. http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html
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