Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is one of Greek literatures classic tragedies. It supports and demonstrates Aristotle’s view on tragedy in the story‚ and ultimately defines how this drama is a tragedy. He talks about tragedy being “an imitation of a noble and complete action” (Witt‚ 165) along with being artistically enhanced with fearful incidents. Important parts of tragedies also include plot‚ character‚ diction‚ thought‚ spectacle‚ and melody. Tragedies are imitations of human action
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Professor James Place October 15‚ 2012 Pham 1 In the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (rpt. in James P. Place‚ Literature: A reader for Freshman Composition II‚ 1st ed. [Boston: Pearson‚ 2011] 122-168)‚ the oracles had prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Oedipus does not want to do the things that Apollo predicted; he is no puppet‚ but indeed the controller of his own fate. Oedipus was unwilling to have his fate come true; he was frightened that he
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The Robert Fagles translation of the last part of Oedipus Rex is the best translation compared to the others. The meaning of this excerpt is very rich and ties up the entire story. It also includes the main theme‚ which is one that still applies today. This translation is the best because it has some elements of poetry that makes it stand out from the others. In this section‚ the chorus is talking about the life of Oedipus. They are explaining of how he was the greatest of men‚ and how he solved
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Causing our own grief In Oedipus Rex‚ written by Sophocles‚ some of the characters cause their own problems. The idea applies not only to the story but to real life as well. In fact‚ “The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.” The significance of this quotation is that people bring on their own sadness by their own doings. Other people do not cause the grief. In Oedipus Rex‚ Oedipus causes his own grief by trying to escape the fate of the oracle’s prophecy. He cannot blame his grief on
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Aristotle said “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles is the best Greek play ever written. The audiences might agree with Aristotle depending upon their understanding of the “healthy confusion” of both pleasure and perplexity portrayed. “Oedipus Rex” is one immense riddle that lifts the audience’s minds’ to a higher understanding of the human life. Greek culture would call this: Catharsis‚ which is purification of the mind. Thematic ideas in the play are derived from the axial age‚ which concentrated on logos
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many elements to a tragic tale. Oedipus Rex lives up to all of them. The reader knows how serious Oedipus’s actions are‚ how complete they are‚ and how high his fall is. A tragedy by definition is a drama which imitates an important and casually related series of events in the life of a significant person‚ such events ending in an unhappy catastrophe. The Greek tragedies are plays based on myths which were well known and enjoyed by audiences. Most of the plays contain certain elements that
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In Oedipus Rex‚ it appears that Oedipus’ tragic downfall was the result of misfortune – his actions of killing his father and marrying his mother were done without knowledge or intent‚ and thus his punishment of scorn and banishment seems excessive for the crime. However‚ though Oedipus was struck by the gods with unfortunate circumstances‚ it was through his own free will that the oracles were permitted to come true. The weaknesses in Oedipus’ personality and his lapses in judgment caused him to
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Journal Project for Oedipus Rex 1. What is the effect of Oedipus’ insistence and promises regarding the hunting down and punishing of the murderer of Laius? What does this suggest concerning his character as well as the meaning of Sophocles’ play? Sophocles a Greek poet and a writer was famous for his tragedies. All of his plays and tragedies consisted of a very distinctive style called dramatic irony - a situation of drama which is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters
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stroll through a minefield. However‚ we often tend to approach “sight” and “blindness” from very literal perspective. Whereas Sophocles‚ in his play Oedipus Rex‚ approaches the sight-blind dichotomy metaphorically. Sophocles associates sight with possession of prophecy and knowledge while connecting blindness to ignorance‚ using Tiresius and Oedipus as physical representations of the latter and former. Sophocles uses sight and blindness to establish that humans are natural drawn to the unknown and
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Just as in real life‚ you get to know the characters in a piece of literature by their words‚ their actions‚ and of course‚ by the words of others. This method of acquainting the reader with a character is called characterization. Direct characterization portrays a character through his or her own words‚ whereas indirect characterization illustrates a character through the author’s or other characters’ words. Direct and indirect characterization allow us to see not only each character’s obvious side
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