Oedipus curses upon the murderer: Dramatic irony (original) (raw)

ANALYSIS OF SOPHOCLES' OEDIPUS THE KING AS AN ARISTOTELIAN TRAGEDY Sinde KURT

ABSTRACT Aristotle built the system of tragedy in his Poetics and gave examples from Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus the King’ while describing the basic elements of tragedy. Based on this, it is possible to say that Sophocles' Oedipus the King is one of the ideal examples of the tragedy. Why does Aristotle, particularly, gives examples from Oedipus the King in Poetics while explaining the tragedy, what is the reason behind this situation and how did the basic tragedy elements of Aristotle take place in the text of Oedipus the King? The objective of this article is to analyze the structure and features of Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, and to interpret why Aristotle particularly referred to this play while giving significant information about tragedy in Poetics. Accordingly, it is aimed to explain the tragedy elements in Aristotle’s Poetics, and to explain such elements within the structure of the play, Oedipus the King. Building a deeper understanding following topics will be examined as a result of this article; the general characteristics of Ancient Greek Theater, the emergence of tragedy, Aristotle’ basic elements of tragedy in Poetics, different views of Aristotle and Plato on tragedy, short biography of Sophocles, and his characteristics made him shine as a tragedy writer, the basic structure and characteristics of Oedipus the King. Key Words: Catharsis, Drama, Mythos, Mimesis, Tragedy, Theater

Tragedy of Oedipus Rex

The myth of Sophocles's Oedipus Rex is revolved on the three interactive perspectives of fate, truth and self-will, making the play a most remarkable one in the fifth century Greece when all the plays focused on the manifestation of God's will under which man's behavior was undoubtedly directed. What gives the play its tragic intensity is not the horror it arouses of patricide or incest but the meaning of fate that God bestows to Oedipus in his endeavor of truth seeking. What's most important, it is the sentimental self-will of Oedipus that makes the play distinguished from other plays during the age of Sophocles' and makes him an outstanding figure in the fifth century Greek. Though Sophocles' plays could not detach themselves from the influence of religious requirement, namely, the divine will, a theme prevailing during his age, he endeavors to present a comparatively different approach of morality, a refusal to compromise of the hero's fate confined by god in literary works of the fifth century Greece. It seems that Sophocles employs the oracles not for the sake of worshipping the Gods, but rather, for the presentation of man's inner strength seeking truths about the conditions of life or about human character based on truth. Résumé: Le mystère d'Oedipus Rex de Sophocles réside dans les trois perspectives interactives : destin,vérité et entêtement, qui rendent ce drame l'un des plus remarquables du XVe siècle de la Grèce où toutes les pièces se consacraient à manifester la volonté de Dieu par laquelle le comportement de l'homme était incontestablement guidé. Ce qui donne à cette pièce son intensité tragique, ce n'est pas la horreur de parricide ou d'inceste, mais le sens du destin que Dieu accorde à Oedipus dans sa recherche de vérité. Ce qui est le plus important, c'est l'entêtement sentimental d'Oedipus qui distingue cette pièce des autre de l'époque de Sophocles et le rend la plus célèbre figure du XVe siècle de la Grèce. Bien que les pièces de Sophocles ne puissent se détacher de l'influence de la demande religieuse, à savoir la volonté divine-un thème prédominant de l'époque, le dramaturge a cherché à présenter une approche relatively différente de la morale, un refus de faire le compromis sur le destin du héros déterminé par Dieu dans les ouvrages littéraires grecs du XVe siècle. Il semble que Sophocles emploie l'oracle non pour vénérer Dieu, mais pour montrer la force intérieure de l'homme dans la recherche de la vérité sur les conditions de vie ou sur les caractères humains basés sur la vérité. Mots-Clés: destin, recherche de la vérité, entêtement, oracle

Re-reading Sophocles’s Oedipus Plays

Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies

Sophocles’s Oedipus plays depict failed integration of self-knowledge as worthy of divinization. Acting out vengeance is the evidence of Oedipus’s failed integration. Oedipus’s task of integration pivots on grasping in what sense he can be understood as guilty. His plight demonstrates that ignorance is part of unconsciousness and, contrary to Jung’s attitude toward ignorance, requires some kind of coping with responsibility. Vengeance was a conscious value among the ancient Greeks. In Sophocles’s last play, Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus acts out vengeance against his sons, and Sophocles divinizes this acting out through having Oedipus join the goddesses, the Furies. This divinization suggests that vengeance is archetypal, depending on culture only for images of manifestation. I argue that Oedipus’s acting out of vengeance can be read as symptomatic of a cultural complex. I identify the situation leading to his acting out as his failure to imagine how creatively to take responsibility ...

Back to the Cradle of Tragedy and Theory: Tracing Aristotelian Principles of Dramatic Construction in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex

Le présent article cherche à établir les influences possibles sur la théorie aristotélicienne de la tragédie. Les études érudites des influences textuelles en poétique ont jusqu’ici essayé de mettre en lumière ce que les théories post-aristotéliciennes de l’art doivent à l’Art Poétique d’Aristote, comment elles s’en écartent ou lui résistent. Cependant, la question de savoir à qui/quoi la théorie d’Aristote pourrait être redevable est restée marginale jusqu’à ce jour. Ce travail tente de combler ce vide épistémologique et heuristique. Il soutient que, comme Aristote a écrit son ouvrage au moins deux siècles après l’institutionnalisation de la tragédie en Grèce, sa théorie formaliste doit avoir été influencée par la pratique des plus grands poètes tragiques de l’âge d’or de la tragédie classique grecque. Pour étayer cette opinion, l’article essaye de dépister et d’illustrer les principes aristotéliciens de la construction dramatique dans Œdipe Roi de Sophocle, une tragédie qui est ici considérée comme l’une des influences majeures probables sur l’Art Poétique d’Aristote.

Victory in Tragic Ending: Analysis of Sophocles’ "Oedipus The King

Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, 2019

This study aims on revealing the concept of victory through the Tragical ending which reflected from Oedipus the King drama written by Sophocles. The objectives of this study are to explain How the concept of Victory in Tragic ending described in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. This study is a qualitative study which applied Strauss’ Structuralism Theory and used discourse instrinsic elements of drama approach. The objects of this study include the material objects which are the drama “Oedipus the King” written by Sophocles as well as formal object which is the intrinsic elements of drama, such as dialogue, staging, characters, plot and themes which reflected from the dialogue in the drama. The data of this study is a qualitative data which is in the form of dialogues on the drama. From the data analysis, it was found that (1) intrinsic elements of drama analysis such as, dialogue, staging, character, plot and themes put a contribution. The contribution of the dialogue, staging, charac...

The fall and rise of King Oedipus

STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal, 2021

This essay is placed within a continuing debate on the appropriateness of a Christian deployment of tragedy. According David Bentley Hart, tragedy legitimates a sacrificial and scapegoating logic that is in contradiction with the Christian gospel. It promotes exclusion and therefore is imaginatively and metaphysically conservative in its import. In the ensuing argument, I hope to show through one example how even Greek tragedy can resist some of these claims. Drawing on the seminal work of Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, I argue that Sophocles’ Oedipus cycle, firstly, demonstrates the inability of nomos to grasp the exception of Oedipus, and that this might constitute a critique rather than a simple legitimation of the civic order. Secondly, the narrative arc of Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus at Colonus point towards incorporation rather than final exclusion, and that his apotheosis could be read as resisting deleterious tropes of a final holocaust of the tragic figure. I...

Echoes of Greek Tragedy in Medieval Literature: The Case of Oedipus

In approaching this issue, it will be helpful to use two analytically distinct methods, to wit, the diachronic, which allows us to speculate about how the myth reached the hands of Lydgate (Guerin 2005, 183–191); and the synchronic, to clarify the similarities and differences between the two authors. Thus, approaching the subject diachronically, the first pages of this paper will attempt to delineate the main milestones in the long tradition of the myth of Oedipus, beginning from the time of Ancient Rome; and, afterwards, a synchronic analysis will examine various motifs as they have survived, disappeared or been transformed in the medieval poem. The final part will explore the possible reasons for these changes.