Notes

Tragedy in Aristotle’s Poetics
a) Aristotle wrote that a tragedy must have unity of plot. What does this statement mean?
By this Aristotle means that the plot must be structurally self-contained, with the incidents bound together by internal necessity, each action leading inevitably to the next with no outside intervention. According to Aristotle, the worst kinds of plots are “‘episodic,’ in which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probable or necessary sequence”; the only thing that ties together the events in such a plot is the fact that they happen to the same person. b) What are the criteria for Aristotle's definition of the tragic hero?
The tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He is not an ordinary man, but a man with outstanding quality and greatness about him. His own destruction is for a greater cause or principle.

-Usually of noble birth
-Hamartia – a.k.a. the tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall.
-Peripeteia – a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero’s tragic flaw
-His actions result in an increase of self- awareness and self-knowledge
-The audience must feel pity and fear for this character.

c) What roles do reversal and discovery play in the development of plot in Aristotelian tragedy?
All plots have some pathos (suffering), but a complex plot includes reversal and recognition.
d) What is the importance of pathos to the objective and purpose of tragedy, and what emotion(s) does it bring out in the spectator?
Pathos is important to the objective ad purpose of the tragedy because it gives the spectator a feeling towards the tragic hero and their tragedy. Usually feelings of pity or fear. e) Discuss catharsis in terms of the effects tragedy seeks to produce in the spectator? Catharsis helps the spectator understand the tragic hero by helping the spectator be able to experience/relate to the words and the actions of the tragic hero.
f) What is the relation, if any, drawn by Aristotle between spectacle to pathos and catharsis?
There is no relation between the two (Pathos and Catharsis). They each help the spectator understand and become engaged/involved with the tragic hero but they do not do so in the same way. Pathos is more emotional while catharsis is more of an attention drawer and understanding.

The fall of the Hero in Oedipus Rex
Here we will examine how the primary elements of Aristotelian tragedy functioned in a drama from the century before Aristotle wrote his Poetics. The fate of the tragic hero is explored to its fullest by Sophocles in Oedipus.
a) What kind of a person is Oedipus? What makes him exemplify the mold of the tragic hero?
Specifically, Oedipus acts bravely against the seemingly invincible Sphinx. He conveys confidence in his speeches to the priest of Zeus and the Theban suppliants. He evidences practicality in his hunt for the guilty in King Laius' murder. But at the same time, he manifests delusion in his mistaken self-image. He also shows rashness in his groundless, panic-stricken charges against his royal advisor, Teiresias the blind prophet, and his royal colleague, Creon.
b) What is the fatal flaw, if any, or is it a bad course of action, which leads to the fall of Oedipus?
It was a complicated series of events. His parents had him abandoned to die when he was born, because they had been warned that he would grow up to kill his father. It's an example of how the steps taken to prevent some event turn out to cause it, because Oedipus grew up not knowing who his real parents were.
However, even though Oedipus may seem to be powerlessly fulfilling a fate that was determined before he was born, his own nature is mainly responsible for his downfall. Although he went to the Delphic Oracle after he began to doubt that the people he thought were his parents really were, when it told him he would kill his father and marry his mother, he illogically thought that he could prevent that prophecy from being fulfilled by never going home again, and then almost within the day he killed a grey-haired man. Then, not long after that, after he had saved the city of Thebes by solving the lriddle of the Sphinx (thus showing that he was fairly intelligent), he accepted the city's offer to make him King, with marrying the Queen, who was obviously older than he, as part of the arrangement. So again he seems to have failed to think clearly.
c) Identify and focus on the discovery scene in the play, and define what happens to Oedipus's awareness of his reversal of fortune. Discuss what leads up to and away from it.
Oedipus' recognition scene comes when the shepherd who rescued him from the side of the mountain tells him the story of his infancy. From this story, Oedipus is able to deduce that Jocasta is his mother and that Laius is his father.
d) Identify the point in the play where the pathos, which the play has been building, reaches its maximum and is released.
Pathos refers to suffering that manages to gain sympathy from a story's reading and viewing audience. It's a good word to describe the suffering that the audience finds in 'Oedipus Rex'. One example of an element of pathos in the play is Theban Queen Jocasta's committing suicide.
Life becomes unbearable when Jocasta realizes that the killer of her first husband, Theban King Laius, is her second husband, Theban King Oedipus. It becomes even more unbearable when she realizes that her second husband is none other than her only child by her first husband. She's tainted by the heinous crimes of father and king killing, through her interactions with the killer. She's tainted by the heinous crime of incest, through her wedding and bedding with her own son. These are all horrible crimes that she never wants to commit. Yet they're all on her doorstep. The only way to face such a life is to end it, according to Jocasta's tormented spirit and tortured mind.
Another example of an element of pathos is Oedipus' self mutilation. He blinds himself once he sees himself and his life for what they really are. He thinks of himself as a model sovereign, husband and father. He finds out that he's the exact opposite. He's a model king, because he's the killer of his royal predecessor. He's a model spouse and parent, because of his own mother.

e) Oedipus' fate, in this play, is high drama played against a backdrop of family and community. How do catharsis and other elements of tragedy (reversal, discovery, pathos) link up with fate?

These elements help the spectator understand the reason and emotions that the tragic hero feels and comes across (helps us feel pitiful) when linking up with fate in the tragedy.
Presentation of Plot in Oedipus Rex
a) Look for expository dialogue at the beginning of the play, spoken by the Chorus or individual characters, which puts the audience up to date on background information about the hero and others who come into play in his situation.
The function of the chorus in Oedipus Rex is to entertain the audience, enhance the workings of the plot and the events.
b) Retrospection is post-expository dialogue where characters explore what took place before the time of play. What is the function of retrospection in Oedipus Rex? What is its importance in relation to the action in the real time of the play?

c) The play is thick with irony, the most obvious being that Oedipus is the king's own son and did commit the crime but does not know it. His investigation of the killer will lead him to himself. How is this outcome ironic?
The irony between Oedipus and him investigating to him being the killer is that he wanted to do everything in his power to punish the one responsible for the murder but in reality it was he, himself, who killed his own father.
d) What do dialogues between Oedipus and certain key characters, such as blind Teiresias, do to define the progression of plot building to its climactic change of power?
Some truth is revealed and the plot takes a quick turn into a new direction.