The Greeks were the first civilization to pioneer different genres of stage entertainment. Of the Greek plays there were only two genres however, tragedy, and comedy; after all, a good laugh is needed to flow a sad story. Tragedies in Greece however were much different from our modern day classification, where a broken nail constitutes as a tragedy. The Greeks had a much more specific definition, created by one of the great philosophers and writers of the time, Aristotle. Aristotle created a very specific set of guidelines that defined what made a perfect tragedy, and what defined a tragic hero. We can see the remnants of this philosophy in many Greek plays, Oedipus Rex being a prime example for his use of a tragic hero. The play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles’ can be defined as the prefect tragedy due to its proper use of the Nobel hero, a tragic flaw, and the hero’s downfall, shown through the character of Oedipus. …show more content…
Apart from his royal birth to Laius and Jocasta Oedipus also had the privilege of being raised by Polypus and Merope; both high class individual’s in the kingdom of Corinth. The noble stature of his birth is very important as it gives us our first indication that Oedipus is indeed a tragic hero, “The tragic hero is a man of noble stature” (Britt). Even though this is unannounced to Oedipus, it still qualifies him as the noble hero, and in fact is a critical building point in the plot of this play. The evolution of Oedipus’ flaw eventually manifests in his self-destruction upon learning he had murdered his father and slept with his mother. Had Oedipus been born of any other persons, and not been a noble, the chain of events would have had a much different result. Oedipus would have simply killed a stranger and lay with a queen; this makes his noble birth even more