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Oedipus Tyrannus And Lysistrata Analysis

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In the tragic play Oedipus Tyrannus written by Sophocles, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, must uncover his own sins in order to save the city from the plague. In Lysistrata, Aristophanes takes a more comedic approach and tells a story of a band of women who defeat the political establishment by withholding sex from their husbands. While these stories may seem dissimilar from each other, both these tragic and comedic plays have problematic beginnings. Although both Oedipus Tyrannus and Lysistrata open with a problem, in a comedy the problem is minor and can be solved through the characters teamwork as opposed to in a tragedy where the problem is intolerable and cannot be fixed without causing further damage.
The characters in both comedies and tragedies face many dilemmas. The leading problem in Oedipus Tyrannus is the plague which has brought great suffering to the city of Thebes as a result of the murder of their previous king. The effect …show more content…

However, the complications presented in comedies are resolved with little sacrifice coming from the protagonist and by the end of the play everyone is united once again. In Oedipus Tyrannus, the plague can be stopped quickly, saving Thebes from undue harm, but Oedipus’s tragic flaw of pride prevents Oedipus from considering himself as the murderer, which causes the problem to only progress further. Stopping the plague is not a painless act. In order to end the plague, Oedipus must realize that he murdered his father and as a result married his mother. This realization, while able to cease the suffering of Thebes, will permanently ruin Oedipus’ name. In contrast, Lysistrata is able to stop the war promptly and smoothly while maintaining everything important to her. Unlike Oedipus, she does not have to face the problem alone and uses the power of teamwork to help her in her

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With the realization of his demise, Oedipus tries to protect himself from punishment and shame by gouging out his own eyes and exiling himself out to die in the place destiny prevented him from dying originally. After many years of luxurious living, Oedipus’s predestined fate tears his life apart and returns him to the place he should have died as an infant, the mountain. Through the use of, departure, initiation, and return, Sophocles displays the journey of Oedipus. Not only is Oedipus the King evidence of the use of the hero’s journey throughout many famous plays, movies, and books across all cultures and time periods, but it also seen as a perfect tragedy, in which the audience experiences both pity and fear for the main

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Having gone through a moment of peripeteia, Oedipus’ story now takes an emotional toll on the audience. After Oedipus has experienced his downfall, his catharsis is set into motion by his desire to make his own final consequence and end fate. Oedipus now carrying the burden of realization about the fate he could never have escaped destroys his mentality and anything he knew about himself. He takes the drastic decision to blind himself with the pins from his mother’s dress after she kills herself, sparking pity in the audience. Oedipus accepted the responsibility for his actions, begging to the Chorus Leader & Creon, “Hide me somewhere outside the land of Thebes, or slaughter me, or hurl me in the sea, where you will never gaze on me again.”

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The union of both sexes is a notable metaphor in both “Symposium” and “Lysistrata”; however, the nature of the love between the sexes draws a distinction between both works. In Symposium, Aristophanes described how both sexes were so powerful when united; and when they were separated, human beings still strived to be united once more by any means. On the other hand, in Lysistrata the characters were already married and united; however, women found their true strength when they started a psychological war on their men. Even though both works drew the readers’ attention to the need for love, Symposium emphasizes the union of sexes in a way that the characters in Lysistrata will never reach; where love is not only about sex and physical attraction, but it’s also about a healthy relationship occupied with affection and caring.

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