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Group member:
Muhammad Nadeem
Sidra Islam
Farheen
Muhammad Yaqoob
Irfan Ullah
Amir Hamza
Drama:
Drama is a classical literary genre involving the level of tent, transformation and
performance. In other words it is a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or
character or it tell a story usually involving conflict and emotion through action and
dialogues and typically designed for theatrical performance.
Drama has its two major types namely, tragedy and comedy along with its well-known
writers.
Tragedy has its elements of which the most important one is a tragic and sad ending.in his
book “Poetics”, Aristotle the Greek philosopher state the important characteristics of
tragedy and a tragic hero. For him the tragic hero must not be evil and be kind at heart. He
also must be from noble and respectful family. He must be enjoying his reputation and
prosperity. There is a dramatic irony in a dramatic tragedy where the characters lead to
their fate unknowingly.
The two terms Hamartia and Hubris shapes the personality of ‘Tragic Hero’, he
unfortunately suffers more than he deserve and the audience feel pity and fear for him.
The priest explains the whole situation to him and he assures them of his co-operations.
Oedipus then gets involve in a bitter conversation with the blind Prophet Teiresias (page -34 to
38). In a dialogue line 316 the Prophet blatantly tells Oedipus that
“You are the cursed polluter of this land”
Which enrage him and he says,
“You dare to say it! Have no shame at all?”
“And do you expect to escape the consequences” (Line- 317 to 318)
Oedipus accuses Teiresias that he lies because he is told by Creon to do so. He says the
Creon is after the throne and thus as plotting the dethrone him with his false accusation.
(Page- 36, line- 348 to 353). He question Creon of his loyalty and offers him no chance to
justify or defend himself. Thus, he loses and allay and a friend.
Oedipus unknowingly had killed his father and then took the other steps unknowingly which
ultimately led him to meet his fate. This is the perfect example of hamartia explained by
Aristotle in his Poetics.
Oedipus passes on from the great suspicion that who is the actual sinner? Is unknowing of
the fact and utters sounds which shows his hamartia and hubristic character.
“To test me first go to the Pythian shrine;
Ask if the message I brought was true.
Second; prove me guilty of any compact with the soothsayer; then take me and condemn to
death.
My voice will join with you in the sentence.”
The dialogues also reveals the fact that Oedipus is also a noble too, because it also shows his
values for the acceptation of guilt.
At the same time Jocasta is also the character in the play escaping from her fate and
denying the realty. As one of her dialogues shows her character of fear from fate, “no one
possesses the secret of divination.”
“I have proof the oracle given to the Laius from Phoebus, no; but from his minister, that he
should die by the hand of his son.
His child and mine what came of it?”
The quality of great tragedy shows that the error is the result of degradation of the noble
characters, Jocasta and her son/husband Oedipus.
Hubristic character of Oedipus is shown when he hears Teiresias “it was him who killed his
father and married his mother. “Oedipus while hearing this became furious and called the
Teiresias the liar.
“Do you think you can say this unpunished?”
Oedipus anger is so great that it turns him means and ready to kill others. He proceeds to
accuses Teiresias as a false prophet. He no longer wants advices from Apollo’s prophet he
declares.
“I did not know what nonsense you would speak, or I have hardly have sent for you”
The three main characters in the play Oedipus, Jocasta and Laius commits hubris. All three
of them thought they could escape fate and tried many things to alter what was already
written for them. All they could do was intend the time and nothing else.
Oedipus character’s flaw is ego. After being successful in making Thebes free from the curse
of Sphinx, his pride has boosted. He had become overconfident. He thought of himself; is
the one and only. This is made evident in the opening lines of the prologue when he states
“Here I am myself….
You all know me, the world know my fame; I am Oedipus”
Actually his conceit is the root cause of related problems. Among these are recklessness,
disrespect and stubbornness. When he made his proclamation and no one confesses to the
murder of Laius, Oedipus loses patience immediately. Later he displays a short temper to
Teiresias.
“You, you scum of the earth……out with it, once and for all”
Later on he becomes suspicious that Creon and Teiresias are the master mind behind killing
of Laius. He strongly suspects the prophet which makes him disrespectful too. Out of
temperament and disrespect, he says,
“teiresias, enough ! Such filth from him? Insufferable …what, still alive? Get out...
Faster, back where you came from…vanish!”
He is an outrageous man and his way of treatment with Creon, Teiresias proves this point.
He kills five men, including his father, out of rage. Even after many years, he details that
incident with rage.
“I killed, kill them all” he says.
Oedipus never listened to the prophet and he never believed in his prophecy even at the
death of King Polybius. He does not have the sense to keep still,
“So! Jocasta; why, why you look to the prophet’s hearth….all those prophecies I feared
…they are nothing, worthless.”
He is overcurious which start with finding his parental identity with revealing his own
identity. Moreover, if he listen to the properly, the situation would have been totally
changed. The two major hamartia that proves his over curiousness and his outrageousness
is that he killed his father and married to his mother and totally ignored all the prophecies
of the prophet. After all this Oedipus admits that
“The hand that struck my eyes was mine...I did it all my self!”
Here he is not only referring to his self-infliction but also the series of events that’s lead to
his demise.
In a nutshell, there is much to learn from the example of hubris and hamartia as it perfectly
fits all the standards that Aristotle sets for a good tragedy. One can learn not only from the
major characters but from the minors one too such as, Teiresias , Creon and many more. It
interestingly unfolds the steps that take Oedipus toward his fate and uses clever words to
disguise hidden meaning in the text. It will keep on to be a perfect example of classical
tragedy.