Tragedy and Comedy Essay

In the play Oedipus the King we identify the classic tragic hero. The character Oedipus Rex plays the role of the tragic hero perfectly. He shows the three main characteristics being talented and of noble birth, possessing a tragic flaw that causes the downfall and pain of everyone, and the recognition of responsibility.

Danielle Hart THEA 317 Research Paper October 26, 2014 Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Greek Women The Greeks played a major role within theatre. They used it not just as entertainment but as a way to reinforce their society’s values. Women were not allowed on stage yet during this time. They also were treated very differently than men in society in general.

Most readers are aware of the many famous deaths or acts of death within the Shakespearean plays. And when the main characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, indeed, the readers would categorize the play as a tragedy. The problem with any tragedy definition is that most tragic plays do not define the tragedy conditions explained or outlined by Aristotle. According to Telford (1961), a tragedy is a literary

The significant archetypal elements that make up the exciting plot that is Oedipus are the tragic hero, anagnorisis, and hubris. Oedipus is a tragic hero because he starts off as a loved and admired king who later finds that he has killed his father and is married to his mother! Oedipus is blinded by his pride, or hubris, when he doesn’t accept the truth that he has committed a sin and accuses his close friends and family of it. Anagnorisis is when the character realizes that he has made a mistake and that is too late to fix things. Anagnorisis is present in the story when he realizes

Theatre was an important aspect of Ancient Greece, as it honoured the gods in a festival called Dionysian. An example of a Greek play is Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles. Throughout this tragedy, the main character, Oedipus, possesses hubris, which eventually leads to his loss of power and downfall. In Robert Fagles’ translation of Oedipus Rex, powerful dialogue, characters, and motifs demonstrate that excessive pride leads to the protagonist’s tragic downfall.

The task of tragedy is to bring ‘Catharsis’ to all its spectators, the belief of witnessing a spectacle consisting of tragic themes, is to provide the spectators a feeling of being cleansed and renewed which purges the spectators’ emotions. However, the idea was to strike pity and fear to all who go to see it. Tragedy is commonly defined as a play involving a main character who is born of royal blood with good intentions, the mistakes they commit leads to their downfall. However, what makes Oedipus The King a highly-regarded piece of Greek Theatre is due to Oedipus not realising that he has already fulfilled his fate by committing the deeds that were

Warm up your vocal cords because you’re going to want to sing along to this youth theatre company’s musical revue. The performance showcases a wide range of music – from energetic group numbers to stirring ballads that will have you weeping in your hanky. Whether you enjoy new smash hits like Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen or classics like A Chorus Line and Hairspray, there’s something sure to please everyone.

The dictionary describes a tragedy as, “a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or fear.” Aristotle’s “Poetics” have long been the standard of a proper tragedy. Yet, could there be more to the perfect tragedy than what either the dictionary or Aristotle suggests? What are the actual characteristics that form a “true” tragedy? In Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (two of the most renowned tragedies ever written), lay the keys to unearthing the facts about what characteristics produce the ultimate tragedy.

Sophocles' play Oedipus the King has endured for over two thousand years. The play's lasting appeal may be attributed to the fact it encompasses all the classical elements of tragedy as put forth by Aristotle in Poetics nearly a century before it was written. According to Aristotle, tragedy needs to be an imitation of life according to the law of probability or necessity. Tragedy is serious, complete, and has magnitude. It must have a beginning, middle, and end and be spoken in language that is fit for noble characters. Furthermore it must be acted, as opposed to epic poetry, which is narrated. Tragedy shows rather than tells. Finally it must result in the purging of pity and fear, or a catharsis. Tragedy is based in the fundamental order of the universe, it creates a cause-and-effect chain that clearly reveals what may happen at any time or place because that is the way the world operates. Tragedy arouses not only pity but also fear, because the audience can envision themselves within this cause-and-effect chain. Tragedy as a whole is composed of six elements: plot, character, language, thought, spectacle and melody. Melody and language are the media by which the effect of imitation of action is carried out, spectacle is the manner or way the tragedy is carried out, and plot, character and thought are the means that initiate the action. Oedipus the King possesses all of these elements.

Ancient Greece is a very unique and foreign place to us today but surprisingly the ancient Greeks liked theatrics as much as we do now. This love for the stage led to many great plays being written one of which was “Oedipus the King”. “Oedipus the King” written by Sophocles in 430 BC is a Greek tragedy that shows the tragic downfall of Oedipus the king of Thebes. In this play Oedipus finds out that the prophecy that he had fled from so long ago had come true as he married his mother and murdered his father. “Oedipus the King” is a brilliant allegory for man's unwinnable struggle against fate and the puzzling actions of the indifferent gods.

In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.

In the story Oedipus The King (Dramatic Tragedy), Oedipus The King plays a role that will ultimately determine his own fate in the end of the book. In the story we see many factors that play a role in Oedipus’s fate, and we see there are many factors that lead to Oedipus’s tragic downfall. In a book a character can be influenced by others and what others have done in the past, but ultimately the decisions is in the characters hands and is based off their personality which results in their fate. In the beginning of the story we can see that Oedipus’s character is displayed and it is first seen as heroic when he saves Thebes.

Oedipus is one of the most famous tragic heroes in drama history. His bizarre fate leads him to a tragic defeat that leaves the audience and reader feeling emotionally overwhelmed. According to Aristotle’s definition, Oedipus’ story makes him as a tragic hero. Oedipus is the personification of Aristotle’s characterization of a tragic hero through his ability to maintain and keep his virtue and wisdom, despite his shortcomings and situation in life. Aristotle’s observation of a tragic hero does not reveal the lack of morality or the evil of the character, based on an error in judgment. The tragedy and drama fit the Aristotelian characteristics of Oedipus.

exercising his free choice by making bad decisions . Oedipus certainly meets these portrayals of a tragic hero. The dialect of tragedy consists of two circles: one is a relative point and the other is impacted and the effect on its audience. Sophocles and Aristotle’s achieve that task with absolute clearness. The modern reader, coming to the classic drama not entirely to the enjoyment, will not always surrender himself to the emotional effect. He is apt to worry about Greek ‘fatalism’ and the justice of the downfall of Oedipus, and, finding no satisfactory solution for these intellectual difficulties, loses half the pleasure that the drama was intended to produce . In dramatizing stories, there will dependably blends of passionate sentiments, suspense, and fervor to discover what’s

In the greek drama, Oedipus the king by Sophocles, King Oedipus shows all the characteristics of a tragic hero. By definition A tragic hero is, “A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate suffers a fall from glory into suffering”. That definition perfectly describes Oedipus and his life. Throughout this whole story we see the real Oedipus emerge. Oedipus starts out in the beginning by being the best king around but by the end of the story we see the ups and downs of his life and how it changed forever. In the story we here Oedipus say these words, “ah! My poor children, known, ah known too well, the quest that brings