The Greek Tragedy:
an influential and popular form of drama in Ancient Greece (8)
The origins of the tragedy supposedly come from a variety of places, some claiming Athens and lyrical epic poetry, while others say it originated with the ritual dance tragōdia to Dionysos, who came to be known as the god of theatre (8). Greek Mythology was often the inspiration for many tragedies, due to the fact that they were considered a part of Greek religion in that era (8). Tragedies often dealt with morality issues concerning what's right or wrong, and violence was never seen on stage (8). Tragedies were the most common of the three main types of drama (8).
Purpose:
Greek Tragedies often deal with major overarching themes, such as "love, loss, pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods" (3). The plot of the tragedy revolves around the main character who does something horrible, yet they don't realize their own foolishness or arrogance (3). As the main character slowly realizes the mistakes they've made, their world crumbles, thus resulting in the lesson NOT to do what the protagonist did (3). Tragedies can be considered didactic, cautionary tales meant to provide examples of what people shouldn't do, and what happens when they don't obey the gods. Another viewpoint would be that "tragedy cleansed the heart through pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in suffering" (3). This is what Aristotle claimed the purpose of the tragedy was, and he called it "catharsis" (3).
Tragedies often use rhetorical devices such as appeal to pathos, tone, and the motif of "its too late to fix things" to achieve their purpose of teaching a moral or life lesson. Tragedies appeal to pathos in the sense that they make the audience feel bad for the character who's life starts to tragically fall apart. Whether it was ignorance or arrogance or whatever the reason the character makes some foolish mistake, people sympathize because everyone makes mistakes, however most don't result in death which is the trademark of Greek tragedies. The tone also plays an important role, sort of guiding the audience's emotions about how they should be feeling/reacting at certain parts of the plot as well as throughout the entire story. This helps the author achieve his purpose because without the right tone, the audience wouldn't be as susceptible to an appeal to pathos. Then there's the motif of "it's too late to fix things," another trademark of tragedies. This is a motif because most tragedies have that moment where the character who's life starts to crumble realizes "it's too late" to fix whatever problem they've gotten themselves into. This is usually where the moral of the story is found; the character realizes what they did wrong (not obeying rules, trying change fate, cheat death, kill someone, etc... ), just not soon enough to fix the mistake. This helps the author achieve his purpose of teaching a life lesson through the moral of the story, often advising people NOT to make whatever mistakes the main character made resulting in their tragic fate.
Oedipus:
"King Oedipus, aware that a terrible curse has befallen Thebes, sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to seek the advice of Apollo. Creon informs Oedipus that the curse will be lifted if the murderer of Laius, the former king, is found and prosecuted. Laius was murdered many years ago at a crossroads.
Oedipus dedicates himself to the discovery and prosecution of Laius’s murderer. Oedipus subjects a series of unwilling citizens to questioning, including a blind prophet. Teiresias, the blind prophet, informs Oedipus that Oedipus himself killed Laius. This news really bothers Oedipus, but his wife Jocasta tells him not to believe in prophets—they've been wrong before. As an example, she tells Oedipus about how she and King Laius had a son who was prophesied to kill Laius and sleep with her. Well, she and Laius had the child killed, so obviously that prophecy didn't come true, right?
Jocasta's story doesn't comfort Oedipus. As a child, an old man told Oedipus that he was adopted, and that he would eventually kill his biological father and sleep with his biological mother. Not to mention, Oedipus once killed a man at a crossroads, which sounds a lot like the way Laius died.
Jocasta urges Oedipus not to look into the past any further, but he stubbornly ignores her. Oedipus goes on to question a messenger and a shepherd, both of whom have information about how Oedipus was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a new family. In a moment of insight, Jocasta realizes that she is Oedipus’s mother and that Laius was his father. Horrified at what has happened, she kills herself. Shortly thereafter, Oedipus, too, realizes that he was Laius’s murderer and that he’s been married to (and having children with) his mother. In horror and despair, he gouges his eyes out and is exiled from Thebes." (10)
The story of Oedipus is a tragedy because he finds out that he's been sleeping with his mother and killed his father (10). His mother then commits suicide and he gouged out his own eyes (10). In the beginning of the tale, there's a suspenseful tone because the audience doesn't yet know who killed King Laius, which helps the author achieve his purpose by creating an overarching dramatic and tragic tone (10). As we slowly start to gain knowledge, the tone shifts and is more of disbelief mixed with horror as the audience begins to realize that Oedipus is the son prophesied to kill his father (Laius) and sleep with his mother (his wife Jocasta) (10). Even though this is only a summary of the myth, the story is classified as a tragedy because the audience can sympathize with poor Oedipus as his entire world crumbles all around him. The author appeals to pathos by tugging at the audience's emotions, aiming for people to feel bad for Oedipus and at the same time horrified at what he's done. The moral of the story is that when people try to change fate, it often turns around and bites them in the butt. Since Jocasta thought she killed the son she had with Laius, she believed both she and the King were safe (10). However, since Oedipus was actually the son of Jocasta and Laius and was given up for adoption, neither his wife nor the King knew that he could still potentially ruin their lives. Tragic, right?
Daedalus & Icarus:
"Once upon a time on the island of Crete, maybe about 1325 BC, there was a king whose name was Minos (in the story; this is only a story). He had living in his palace at Knossos a great architect and inventor named Daedalus.
There are stories about Daedalus inventing all kinds of things, but he is especially supposed to have built the great Labyrinth for King Minos to keep the Minotaur in.
After Daedalus built the Labyrinth, though, King Minos did not want him to be able to tell its secrets to anybody else, and so he kept Daedalus a prisoner in a tall tower, all alone with only his young son Icarus.
Now Daedalus and Icarus did not like being prisoners, and so Daedalus began to think about how they could get away. He watched the birds flying and he thought how free they were, and he decided to make wings for himself and Icarus.
Daedalus and Icarus made the wings out of bird feathers and wax and they tied the wings on to each other. DAEDALUS warned his son to be careful when he was flying: if he went too close to the sea, he might fall in, but if he flew too high in the sky, the heat of the sun would melt the wax on his wings and he would fall. Icarus promised to be careful.
So they set off for freedom. At first everything went well, but after a little while Icarus got tired of just flying in a straight line. He began to try to do tricks and go up and down. His father told him to cut it out and behave himself, but Icarus was having too much fun to listen, and he kept on going up, higher and higher. Suddenly he realized his wings really WERE melting! He tried to go back down again, but it was too late. His wings came apart, and he fell down, down, down into the ocean, where he drowned.
Daedalus was horrified that his son had died, and spent a long time searching for his body, but when he found it there was nothing he could do but bury it sadly." (9)
The story of Daedalus and Icarus is a tragedy because even though his father warned him about the melting wax, Icarus still flew too high, resulting in him drowning (9). The beginning of the tale has more of a whimsical, fairytale-like tone, which shifts abruptly the moment King Minos decides to keep Daedalus prisoner (9). A shocked tone helps the author achieve his purpose by establishing the overarching dramatic tone which will set the scene for the rest of the story. As Daedalus is inspired by birds flying, he decides to build wings for both himself and Icarus so they might escape (9). He dramatically made Icarus promise not to fly too low or too high, however his son believed Daedalus to be exaggerating (9). Since he didn't heed his father's warning, the audience is shocked when young Icarus tragically falls to his death after soaring too close to the sun (9). The moral of this story is to listen to one's parents, because when you disobey them there are consequences. This story is classified as a tragedy because of one of the common themes in Greek mythology: hubris. Hubris is defined as "excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance" (11). It is Icarus's hubris that causes him to ignore Daedalus's warning and fly much higher than he should be flying (9). By the time Icarus realizes his father's warning was important, it's far too late because the sun had already started melting the wax (9). Since his own arrogance caused him to disobey his father, the story is a tragedy because of Icarus and his poor decision-making skills.
Conclusion:
Tragedies are meant to teach a moral of the story through the use of rhetoric, often advising the audience not to make the same mistakes as the character. Since the character is arrogant or ignorant or whatever the reason, and foolishly try to break the rules or change fate or whatever else they might do, the moral is taught through their stupid mistake and their tragic fate.
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