Oedipus Rex has been called "the perfect tragedy" by famous philosophers such as Aristotle. Aristotle claimed that the "perfect tragedy". According to his work, Poetics, it does seem like a perfect tragedy. But Oedipus Rex is only a "perfect tragedy" in the sense or Aristotle.
Nowadays, people can relate to tragedies. They revolve around realistic people, or at least, realistic emotion. It is almost impossible to relate to a man finding out that he has married his mother and had children with her. In fact, most people found the ending entertaining and ironic. We are more attuned to a new kind of tragedy - a love tragedy. Romeo and Juliet is a perfect example of this. While most people will probably never experience this in their life, it is at least more normal than the plot of Oedipus Rex.
I agree that the plot of Oedipus Rex is a bit absurd. I didn't find it to be necessarily a very tragic storyline, but more so a very disturbing story about a very VERY unfortunate man.
ReplyDeleteI definitely concur with your Romeo and Juliet example - it's definitely a more tragic plot-line to a much more realistic (though exaggerated) story.