Aristotle’s Poetics Is Not Only Relevant to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex

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Aristotle’s Poetics is not only relevant to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex Aristotle’s muse for the writings of his Poetics was Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex as well as works from other ancient Greek plays such as Homer, who Aristotle described as a ‘supreme poet of serious subjects’. This is indicative of Aristotle’s appreciation for the works of these ancient Greek playwrights, as Homer complemented him in his Poetics. Aristotle’s Oedipus Rex was the pinnacle of tragedies; he drew inspiration from several key components of this play to create his own great work that would contribute an enduring philosophy of theatre. This discussion will first seek to demonstrate the extent to which Aristotle drew directly from Oedipus Rex to highlight the key components of tragedy and the value of Aristotle’s principles in what makes a tragedy. I will also however, go on to examine how far Aristotle’s criterion for a successful tragedy has been applied to other genres of theatre, for instance the satire that became particularly popular in the eighteenth century. It has been argued that Aristotle’s Poetics provides a type of instruction manual for playwrights that wish to write a successful tragedy; by listing the characteristics and essential events that feature in Oedipus Rex. Aristotle does not specifically write the story line for Oedipus Rex but breaks down an event featured in the play, deconstructing its components in relation to the plot. Aristotle refers to Oedipus Rex to provide an example to support his statements regarding the characteristics that should form the foundation of a tragic play. The most rational connection to make would be to compare Oedipus Rex to William Shakespeare’s King Lear. The next part of this essay will investigate the connections between the three texts and focus on the style of writing and plot. By discovering the connections between the texts, this will

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