From the class notes, tragedy can be defined as "a tale of suffering, a drama involving the expulsion of evil, an instance where the powerful fall", this background helps the reader see the characteristics of a tragedy in this drama, Oedipus the King. To compare these notes to the reading, the chorus explains this concept similarly after hearing the coincidental events which could indict Oedipus:
Pride breeds the tyrant
violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting
with all that is overripe and rich with ruin -
clawing up to the heights, headlong pride
crashes down the abyss - sheer doom! 964-967
Because of previously knowing that tragedies involve characters in power falling from their high position, it was much easier to notice the significance of this passage. Also in our class notes, was that greek drama did change with the seasons,
however a reoccuring topic was that Greece was in a "time of insecurity", this
is also demonstrated in Oedipus the King, "Enough, please, enough! The land's
so racked already or so it seems to me" (757-758). Sophocles not only utilizes
the dithyramb as an outside voice which gives the characters some sort of
societal response, he also expresses that the city is wrecked and that the
people need a leader to build back their pride and joy.
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