Oedipus Influence

Many modern societies, such as America, are greatly shaped by European influences. Some of the most impactful cultural influences in America originated from ancient Greece. They provided recreational activities that evolved and became an important part of the American culture, such as their theatrical performances that progress into movies of modern time. The Greeks were the first to construct theatres and create a standard for storytelling through plays. Aristotle’s “The Art of Poetry” greatly influenced later literary geniuses such as Shakespeare in creating tragedy. Playwrights during Aristotle’s time, such as Sophocles, wrote plays based around his standards of what a tragedy should have. Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex incorporated the various

This can be achieved by including suffering, character, plot and more. There were several points in Oedipus Rex that incites pity and fear. The instances that causes pity involves suffering. All of the evidence of suffering mentioned above contributes to pity because the audience would feel sympathy for those that suffered. Such as when Laius orders his son’s death, it incites pity and fear because the baby would die at such a young age by the hands of his own parents (Sophocles 36). In addition, Jocasta’s hanging and Oedipus blinding himself also causes pity because they are morally good people who unknowingly did a horrible deed. Because they were good people, the audience would pity them when they suffer. Fear and pity is also caused by the reveal of Oedipus’ birth parents because the audience would pity Oedipus for marrying his mother even though he tries so hard to avoid the prophecy. It would also cause fear moments after the reveal because they would fear for Oedipus’ fate. Pity and fear is the hardest quality to justify because of its subjectivity. Therefore, one could only analyze it objectively through Aristotle’s guidelines which stated that pity and fear can be achieved through having suffering, character, and plot as the most effective way (Aristotle 92-99). As evidenced above, Oedipus Rex has met the requirements for all three characteristics to be able to effectively inspire pity and