Tragedy: Finding the Relatable in the Unrelatable

Tragedy is reality magnified and intensified. It arouses feelings of confusion, pity, sadness, fear, and even delight.

Why do we feel these things after reading tragedies like Oedipus the King? We feel confusion because a certain character does not deserve such a horrible fate. We feel pity for the hopelessness of the situation. We are saddened for the same reason. We are afraid, perhaps, because if something so wretched could happen to this guy, something similar could happen to us, right? We are delighted because a man, a man with his tragic flaw—his pride, his fatal error in life, whatever it may be—is being punished, being put in his place, “getting what he deserves.”
So, our reactions to the play are seemingly justified. But then what is the point of the play? Can we relate to it?

Oedipus’s situation is completely unfamiliar to us. He is a king. When he was born, his parents tied his feet together and left him to die in order to avoid the fulfillment of prophesy. But the prophecies were fulfilled, as they always are, and Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. And Oedipus did not realize he did these things until much later in life. Then, he blinded himself out of self-disgust and sent himself into exile. Can you relate to this? It probably seems like you can’t.

But his prideful and selfish nature, which is evident throughout much of the play, is very relatable. We have all put our concerns before the concerns of others. We have been too proud about our accomplishments. We have been selfish. Oedipus is self-serving. He suffers from hubris. He is self-centered and self-adoring. There are countless examples of his selfishness in the play. One is after learning about the murder of King Laios from Creon, Oedipus immediately worries about himself and says, “Whoever killed King Laios might—who knows?—decided at any moment to kill me as well. By avenging the murdered king I protect myself” (prologue, lines 141-143). These selfish human sentiments are what help us relate to the seemingly unrelatable king.

However, if it seems too impossible to relate to such a tormented man, there is still something valuable to take from Oedipus. This is the ending: the first look at the effects of the tragedy and the reactions of the characters involved. What happens after tragedy/after a tragic flaw or wrongdoing in real life is discovered? Tears, depression, revenge, suicide? Is there ever a “bright side” to the situation or a light at the end of the tunnel? Most certainly. Sometimes such a tragedy is necessary for enlightenment, even if the enlightenment is nearly “terrible,” as described in “Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy.” At the end of the play, Oedipus is at rock bottom. But his fall humbled him. He is still discouraged and devastated, but there is the slightest glimmer of hope. After his realization that he had, indeed, fulfilled the prophecies, he blinds himself. Through this blinding, he is able to truly see things as they are. A tragedy, but a much-need enlightenment. Sometimes we need to fall—really hard—to go forward.

Because Oedipus’s life is so severely tragic and unlike ours in nearly every way, the messages—the ways we can relate it to our own lives—are not obvious. But once discovered, they are powerful. (559)