Oedipus The King

In Poetics, Aristotle explains that a classic tragedy must tell the story of a character’s downfall, contain unforeseen turns of fate, cause pity and fear in the audience and have an unfortunate ending (Butcher). Along with this, he also states a hierarchy of six elements of tragedy. These six elements are: plot, character, thought, wording, song-making and visuals. In a tragedy, the plot is the most significant part and characters are secondary. Aristotle describes a tragic plot as having some suffering, and a more complex plot includes reversal (peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorisis). The tragic hero, the main character in the story also possesses a desire to fulfill some goal and inevitably encounters limitations. The elements that are

Characters are men and women who act, the hero and the heroine being the two most important figures. With every Greek tragedy, there is “tragic hero” who possesses flaws, which eventually leads to his downfall. In Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus, the King of Thebes, demonstrates certain flaws such as a short temper and stubbornness, each of which lead into his ultimate defeat. Oedipus’s temper is shown when he is extremely upset with Tiresias and threatens to for accusing him of being Laius’s murderer. An example of Oedipus’ stubbornness’ in proving the prophecy wrong by demanding to find and punish Laius’s murderer. When he is warned by other characters to not be so stubborn in his search for the murderer he replies with “What - give up now, with a clue like this? Fail to solve the mystery of my birth? Not for all the world!” (Sophocles 1160-1162). Even when Jocasta’s attempts to stop him, he still insists, “Listen to you? No more. I must know it all, must see the truth at last.” (Sophocles 1167-1169). Additionally, Oedipus uses his intellect to become ruler of Thebes by solving the riddle of the sphinx, but it is this intellect of his that leads him to the truth of his identity and his consequent downfall. There is no way that Oedipus would’ve thought or known of the consequences that would follow with his actions and it is this fact that makes the audience feel sorry for him and his destined downfall. Oedipus is not the villain but he does suffer through all the hurdles and consequences a tragic hero would as based on Aristotle’s elements of