What makes Oedipus Rex a tragedy?

Question

I know the story, but what truly makes it a tragegy?

Answer 1

That he kills his father and ends up marrying his mothers. That sounds pretty tragic to me.

Answer 2

What did you think was the fun part?  The s*x with his mom, or his gouging his eyes out?

Answer 3

Come on, man. He killed his father, married his own mother AND had children with her.  How can you NOT understand why it's tragic.

Answer 4

Oedipus thinks Creon put Tiresias up to say what he said. (“I charge you, then, submit to that decree you just laid down: from this day onward speak to no one, not these citizens, nor myself. You are the curse, the corruption of the land”. (Sophocles 833). He questions Jocasta about the party Laius was traveling with and he starts to think that he might have killed Laius, so he sends for the survivor of the party traveling with Laius to find out for sure if it was Laius he killed. Then a messenger comes from Athens telling them that Polybus is dead from natural causes. Jocasta tries to comfort Oedipus by saying the curse could not be true if his father died of natural causes, but the messenger tells Oedipus that he is not Polybus’ biological son. The survivor was also the same man who took Oedipus when he was born to the woods. He confirmed that he was not Polybus’ son and he was Laius’ son. As these events occurred the audience begins to see that the curse has already came true. Oedipus confronts pity and fear too the audience. Pity starts rising when Oedipus was born and is sent away into the woods to die. The audience feels pity for Oedipus when he realizes that despite all his efforts the curse still came true. Pity also arises when Jocasta kills herself and after Oedipus gouges out his eyes. Fear arises in the audience when Oedipus is talking to Tiresias. The audience knows that he is the cause of the plague, but fears that Oedipus is going to find out that he was the cause of the plague. As pity and fear occurs throughout the play, it leads up to the catastrophe at the end of the play. Oedipus further fits into the definition of a tragedy because the play ends in an unhappy catastrophe. After Oedipus finds out that the curse has come true, that he really killed his father and married his mother. Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus gouges out his eyes. Oedipus was doing the deed, he cried out that his eyes should no longer be able to look upon his crimes; before, his eyes had seen those they should not have seen, and failed to recognize those they ought to have recognized. Oedipus ends up being a great tragedy.

Answer 5

Aidas pretty much got it. Hah funny I actually just read it today. I'd also say that since Oedipus thinking he could deify what he was told would come true and in the end his realization that his attempts really got him no further from the prophecy then he had come to think. Also the great change from him beholding a kingdom and being a Hero to his people to becoming blind, exiled, and I'd say even repulsed by himself.

Answer 6

Oedipus suffers a major reversal of fortune and loses everything that matters to him, in such a way that even the memories of what he once had are tainted, and he brings it about through his own tragic flaw.  At the beginning he has a kingdom in which the people love him and consider him a hero, and a loving wife and four children; and at the end he's a blind beggar, an object of pity, who has to face the fact that he gained those things by violating some of mankind's strongest taboos.

Answer 7

There's a very old adage in theater, which doesn't apply to every play, but it does tend to apply in general to enough that it's still bandied about:

If it's a comedy, everyone gets married.

If it's a tragedy, everyone dies.

In Oedipus Rex, everyone dies.

Answer 8

The painfully shocking facts or the suffering and/or misfortune of people that provoke the mercy and the fear of the spectator. In other words, heavily strong dramatic happenings. That's why it is called a tragedy.