Summary:
Sophocles's Oedipus Rex is probably the most famous tragedy ever written. Sophocles's tragedy represents a monumental theatrical and interpretative challenge. Oedipus Rex is the story of a King of Thebes upon whom a hereditary curse is placed and who therefore has to suffer the tragic consequences of fate (tragic flaws or hamartia).
Oedipus, a tragic hero
Sophocles's Oedipus Rex is probably the most famous tragedy ever written. Sophocles's tragedy represents a monumental theatrical and interpretative challenge. Oedipus Rex is the story of a King of Thebes upon whom a hereditary curse is placed and who therefore has to suffer the tragic consequences of fate (tragic flaws or hamartia). In the play, Oedipus is the tragic hero. Even though fate victimizes Oedipus, he is a tragic figure since his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his fidelity to the truth ruin him.
In The Poetics, the greatest statement of classical dramatic theory, Aristotle cites Oedipus as the best example of Greek tragedy. According to Aristotle, Oedipus is a tragic hero because he is not perfect, but has tragic flaws (hamartia). Aristotle points out that Oedipus' tragic flaw is excessive pride (hubris) and self-righteousness. Aristotle also enlightens certain characteristics that determine a tragic hero. Using Oedipus as an ideal model, Aristotle says that a tragic hero must be an important or influential man who commits an error in judgment, and who must then suffer the consequences of his actions. The tragic hero must learn a lesson from his errors in judgment, his tragic flaw, and become an example to the audience of what happens when great men fall from their arrogant social or political positions. According to Aristotle, a tragedy must be an imitation of life in the form of a serious story that is complete in it; in other words, the story must be realistic and narrow in focus. A good tragedy will evoke pity and fear in its viewers, causing the viewers to experience a feeling of catharsis. Catharsis, in Greek, means "purgation" or "purification"; running through the extent of these strong emotions will leave viewers feeling thrilled, in the same way we often claim that "a good cry" will make one feel better.
As outlined in the proposal, Oedipus is a tragic hero even though he didn't die because of the facts described by Aristotle satisfies the character of Oedipus. In this story the character's egotism and self-centrism has caused him a different fate, drawing attention of the audiences on the issues that the human behaviors directly affect the human emotions as Oedipus blinded his eyes by himself after finding out the truth. Here the hunger for the truth overshadowed by his grandiosity as explained by Miller has made Oedipus to find out what he hadn't expected. He was just willing to help somebody but as it was overcame from his confidence and proud, the story is able to manipulate the audience's feeling and make feel sorry for the character even though it is already known to the audiences that Oedipus was wrong, as seen from his confident and proud actions. While in Thelma and Louise, the feelings generated to the audience are different. Unlike Oedipus, in Thelma and Louise the human feelings were not played ironically but instead were diverted from characters actions from one wrong action to series of others. Oedipus ends in misery and sorrow of his past but Thelma and Louise ends up surrounded by the results of their wrong activities, which they tried to overcome by running away from it rather than facing it like Oedipus. At the end too, both tragedy shows the different perspective of life. One is with full of pride and guilt but other with full of pride but not guilt.
Oedipus is full of pride and guilt because what he did is right but still is wrong to do. It later turns out to be the things that are supposed not to be done although it is right. Perhaps, he did the right things following his guts but that made him feel guilty for the whole life because what he had done turned out to be immoral. Therefore, it plays human feelings and summarizes that doing everything right every time just doesn't mean that it is right making audience feel pity. It also signifies the role of fate as discussed in the story is really what matters. The exact nature of fate, the uncontrollable forces that influences us, is clearly shown in the role that the gods play in revealing the truth of the Oracle's prophecies to Oedipus. Although he does all he can to live honestly and avoid the crimes prophesied for him, Oedipus can't escape the relentless fate that pursues him. Therefore, irrepressible fate in this story is not known until the hero in the story hears the truth. In the case of Thelma and Louise, fate is known. Therefore, there is no pity and fear in this tragedy. Thelma and Louise, in contrary, is full of guilt and its result. There is no pride in the whole story among the characters. These two tragedies therefore shows how important to the actors and producers to give importance to the emotional feeling of a human character. It also proves the art of manipulating the different nature of human behaviors in the tragedy.
As defined by Aristotle, both the tragedies have controversial themes and characters that are only possible in great tragedies but as per his definition Thelma and Louise cannot define itself as tragedy, even though both draw the attention as well as repulsion through the story. Oedipus was proud and was more than a normal human being. He wanted to rise from normal and hence he finally achieves the dream that he dreamt about by his personality and power on his own. His character up to this shows his confidence and proud on himself. His self-proclamation beneath himself as a fighter and worrier and a person who is eager to find out the truth eventually claims his own pride and fame. In the Thelma and Louise, characters were normal human beings who don't have any confidence in judging the matters. Louise kills the bad character in the story but instead feeling proud they fear. They fears about future, about their actions, about others and so they run away. In contrast, Oedipus doesn't fear but the audience fear. He is confident but the feeling that generates the audience is not confident. In the whole story audience are in dilemma and confusion and they worries about the character and his fate. The only anxiety in the story is the fate of the character and his handling about the truth when it comes. In Thelma and Louise, the truth is perceptible. The characters are running away from the truth in search of perfect-ness while in Oedipus, the character thinks he is perfect for everything. Therefore, these two tragedies are in opposite direction for the same meaning. Thelma and Louise did the right thing as Oedipus did but Thelma and Louise didn't face the truth and didn't bother to confess it but in Oedipus truth was not known. He has to find it, which draws both controversy and attention in the story. Finally, the fate to Oedipus is known and he ends up in the greatest loss of his life. He gains his name and fame with his power and ability in a course of time but looses at once with one tide of truth. Hence he is tragic hero in classic Greek because he not only looses his name and fame but he also loses his eyes for the truth. After blinding himself, ready for his life in exile, he appears to have lost everything. Yet even while his condition is pathetic, he can be still seen as a hero because he has faced his tragic punishment with incredible courage; he never held back, but surrendered boldly after truth and made no excuses for himself. This reveals that Oedipus examined the depth of his soul and judged himself honestly. Therefore, we can say that he is admirable despite his tragic flaws, and at the end he is stripped of everything but his own integrity and inner strength. Instead, in Thelma and Louise, we see deficiency of desire for truth, honesty, or confidence.
The only theme that is noticed in Thelma and Louise is that they are normal human beings with normal desires, not facing the truth but instead having more fun and freedom ignoring their duties for the family and society. In Thelma and Louise, the duty of characters are totally ignored and voided and is not prominent as in Oedipus and so it doesn't draw the attention and feeling of audiences for pity and fear as Oedipus but instead it is drags the audiences with it till the end, playing with their emotional feeling. Hence, audience is able to stay with it and focus on its subject despite the uneasy behaviors of characters similarly to the Oedipus's play. Therefore, as focused in the proposal, it is important for the authors, writers, and actors to understand and explain the human feeling as in Thelma and Louise and hence it is important to continue to study of such subject matters in the play.
As stated by Cohen (outlined in the proposal), tragedy is neither pathetic nor sentimental; it describes a bold, aggressive human attack against huge, perhaps insurmountable, odds. In this sense and for Cohen, the story of Thelma and Louise doesn't seem to be a tragedy. Instead it might be an action play for him and so in late 20th century, Thelma and Louise was viewed as an action story. Thelma and Louise generate sympathy and sentiments among the audiences and so it is not the story of tragedy but in the sense how they end up for merely a simple desire is a tragedy. Therefore, Thelma and Louise draws controversy in among the judgment of audiences like defined by Aristotle for Oedipus. Despite these qualities in the story Thelma and Louise, characters are merely important than their fate. But the fate of Thelma and Louise is already known and so as per Cohen it is not a tragedy because there is sentiments for the characters and the pathetic behavior of character can be seen all over the story. Though it is not tragedy for the audiences, it is tragedy for the characters, their emotional feelings and their fate, which is not supposed to be theirs, similar to Oedipus. In this story, it seems they invite their fate and so it is not sentimental. They produce their actions and so for Cohen it is not tragedy as Oedipus where fate is not known. Fate and destiny are two far apart things for characters but the point that needs to be noted in between Thelma and Louise and Oedipus is that both revolves between the fate and destiny in two different way. Audiences do not know fate in Thelma and Louise but fate of Oedipus is known to the audiences and not known to the character himself. Similarly, in Thelma and Louise, characters are familiar to their fate but audiences have no idea about their fate. Therefore, how the feelings can be manipulated in the story can be understood in these to stories to produce a successful piece of work that will last forever.
Tragedy defined by accidents plays a great role in both stories. Both stories end up in tragedy followed by accidents. Killing the King and marrying the Queen seems to be fate but in the real sense it is a tragedy of Oedipus, which he has to face in future, and so it is an accident. Perceiving children from queen is also an accident though he became a good father; here word "father" is not whole enough to define Oedipus in the situation presented in the story. Hence, to say him good father or brother or something else, dictionary is itself in search and dilemma and so for everybody, it is a tragedy. As believed by Cohen and Aristotle for a tragic hero, Oedipus fits in all categories. For Miller too Oedipus is a tragic hero because Oedipus is in love with his idealized self, but neither the grandiose nor the depressive Narcissus can really love himself (Miller 67). Therefore, as discussed above, Oedipus is a tragic hero according to Aristotle, Cohen, and Miller and how such tragedy faced by a aristocratic personality can effect human feeling and manipulate it to produced best tragedy of all is the important theme to understand and that is why it is important for students, theater lovers, actors, and producers to study such behavior of human in the story. Oedipus is a good source to study and therefore we should keep studying Oedipus for theater explanation of human feelings. No matter how much we try, fate is always real and cannot be avoided. Such fate draws good tragic story in both Oedipus and Thelma and Louise described by Cohen as "insurmountable odds."
In the conclusion, though Oedipus doesn't die in classic Greek while Thelma and Louise does in modern world and the themes present in both stories varies but also they are able to live manipulating human emotions and feelings. Such ingredients in the story are highly important for a piece to live longer and draw the attention forever. These facts were present in Oedipus and Thelma and Louise. Similarly, death always doesn't mean tragedy or it always makes the audiences feel inseparable but how death is sketched along the circles of the character is important aspect that is presented in the story. This aspect of the life and death has made Oedipus a great tragic hero of classical Greek while Thelma and Louise remained as one of the action play with different meaning of tragedy than Oedipus but still able to get the attention. Therefore, how the human emotions between the characters in two stories as well as the audiences and the character were manipulated by the characters for the same action in different way is shown by both of these stories and so it is very important to theater producers and actors and students like us to continue study and play till this time of 21st century to define the art, life, and theater in better way as well as to understand it in different angle.
