| Term Paper Title | Tragedy In Oedipus Rex |
| # of Words | 557 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) | 2.23 |
Tragedy in Oedipus Rex
The Greek drama Oedipus Rex is clearly a tragedy. It definitely meets the
five main criteria for a tragedy: a tragic hero of noble birth, a tragic flaw,
a fall from grace, a moment of remorse, and catharsis.
Oedipus Rex clearly meets the first of these five criteria. Oedipus is the
son of Laius, who was king of Thebes. Even at the beginning of the story, when
we are told that Oedipus is the son of Polybus, he is still of noble birth;
Polybus is king of Corinth.
The tragic flaw, or mistake that a character makes, in Oedipus Rex does not
actually take place during the story. We only watch as Oedipus and the rest of
the characters discover this mistake that was actually made long, long ago and
cannot be reversed. This tragic flaw is of course Oedipus killing his father
Lauis, and then marrying Jocasta, his mother. We realize that these actions
have taken place much earlier in the story than the characters do. However,
both of these events actually took many years ago.
The fall from grace in Oedipus Rex is when Oedipus, Jocasta, and all the
other characters in the story realize that Oedipus actually did murder Laius
and that Jocasta is indeed his mother as well as his wife. This occurs rather
quickly, very close to the end of the play.
The audience sees this coming long before it actually does, however. In one
of the passages of Oedipus speaking with Jocasta, just about everything is
spelled out for us. Jocasta speaks of Laius leaving the castle with just a few
servants and his being killed where three roads meet. Oedipus claims that he
killed somebody where thre...Read entire document
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