Oedipus Rex & The Tragic Hero
What’s an Archetype?
 Carl Jung – (1875 – 1961) psychologist
Developed
concepts of
introvert/extrovert and collective
unconscious
 Archetype – Universal patterns of
thought, action, narrative that
transcend culture, history, etc.
What’s an Archetype?
 Examples:
Family
– the father, the mother, the son
Characters – the hero, the maiden, the
magician, the trickster, the villain
Animals – the loyal dog, the devious cat,
the enduring horse
Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy
 Aristotle – (384 – 322 BCE), Greek philosopher
Poetics (335 BCE) – earliest surviving work of dramatic
theory and literary theory
 FORM - Cataloged the various types of “making”
(expressed creativity)
 Drama (comedy, tragedy, satyr) and Poetry (lyric, epic,
dithyramb)
 CONTENT – Described the different elements of a story
 Examined and theorized about the relationship between
the audience and the details of the story (plot, character,
diction, melody, spectacle).

Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy
"Tragedy, then, is a process of imitating an action which
has serious implications, is complete, and possesses
magnitude; by means of language which has been made
sensuously attractive, with each of its varieties found
separately in the parts; enacted by the persons
themselves and not presented through narrative;
through a course of pity and fear completing the
purification (catharsis, sometimes translated
"purgation") of such emotions."
Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy
 “Imitation” (mimesis) – artist cannot just write
things exactly as they happen, but must create a
fictional scenario that imitates real life to give
meaning to reality itself.
 Think-Pair-Share
 Why is it especially important that a work of
tragedy be realistic?
Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy
 “an action with serious implications”
 Meaningful,
significant – limit the rando,
meaningless stuff
 “complete and possesses magnitude”
 Complete
w/ beginning, middle, and end
 Think-Pair-Share
 What’s
the difference between “real” and
“realistic”? Why does it matter?
Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy
 “language sensuously attractive”
 Engaging,
interesting language that is appropriate to
context & purpose
 Think-Pair-Share
 Why
would a writer want to use different language
for different scenes?
 “tragedy”
 Audience
is more likely to be moved by enactment
than by simple story-telling
Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy
 “purification”
 Tragedies are successful because they elicit a wide-range
of emotions in the audience, but especially pity and fear.
 The most satisfying tragedies conclude with a sense of
catharsis or emotional release
Aristotle and the Elements of Tragedy
 Aristotle based his theories about tragedy and
tragic heroes on the character of Oedipus from
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.
 As we read Oedipus Rex we will be tracking the 6
characteristics of the archetypal tragic hero to
examine exactly how they work in the story. As we
progress through the unit, we will see a number of
tragic heroes and analyze how/why each fits or
doesn’t fit the model.
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 Nobel Stature
 Since
tragedy involves the "fall" of a tragic hero,
one theory is that one must have a lofty position
to fall from, or else there is no tragedy (just
pathos).
 Another explanation of this characteristic is that
tragedies involving people of stature affect the
lives of others
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 Tragic Flaw (Hamartia)
 the
tragic hero must "fall" due to some flaw in his
own personality. The most common tragic flaw
is hubris (excessive pride).
 One who tries to attain too much possesses
hubris.
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 Free Choice
 while
there is often a discussion of the role of fate
in the downfall of a tragic hero, there must be an
element of choice in order for there to be a true
tragedy.
 The tragic hero falls because he chooses one
course of action over another.
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 The Punishment Exceeds the Crime
 the
audience must not be left feeling that the
tragic hero got what he deserved.
 Part of what makes the action "tragic" is to
witness the injustice of what has occurred to the
tragic hero.
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 Hero has Increased Awareness
 it
is crucial that the tragic hero come to some sort
of an understanding of what went wrong or of
what was really going on before he comes to his
end.
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 Produces Catharsis in Audience
 catharsis
is a feeling of "emotional purgation"
that an audience feels after witnessing the plight
of a tragic hero: we feel emotionally drained, but
exultant.
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 Think-Pair-Share
 Can
you think of any contemporary “tragic hero”
stories that fit this archetype?
The Characteristics of an “Archetypal” Tragic
Hero
 Think-Pair-Share
 Can
you think of any contemporary “tragic hero”
stories that fit this archetype?
The Story of Oedipus
 The story of Oedipus pre-dates Sophocles’ play – audience
members watching the play would already know about the
story of Oedipus, which limits the amount of suspense.
 In Greek mythology, Oedipus (King of Thebes) famously
killed his father and married his mother.
 Laius (Oedipus’ father) received a prophecy that he would
be killed by his son
 At birth, Oedipus was sent out of Thebes and was to be
hung by his ankles (Oedipus roughly means “swollen foot”)
to die
The Story of Oedipus
 A shepherd took pity and rescued him by sending him to
live in Corinth, where he was adopted by King Polybus.
 When Oedipus learned of the prophecy of his birth, he fled
Corinth, thinking that Polybus was his father.
 Travelling toward Thebes, he got into an argument with a
man and killed him, not knowing it was his real father,
Laius.
 When he arrived in Thebes, he solved the riddle of the
sphinx that had plagued the town. Since Laius was missing,
he was crowned king and married Jocasta, his mother.