Sophocles's Oedipus Rex fits Aristotle's conception of tragedy to a great extent. Aristotle defines a disaster as a play expressed through poetry that ends unhappily for a nobleman whose fate incites fear and pity in the audience. Oedipus Rex meets all of these requirements fully. In Poetics, Aristotle writes, "Tragedy... is an imitation of an action... in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament... in the form of action, not narrative." Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex as a play, in the form of action and not narrative. The characters speak everything, from the action to the internal dialogue. While novels would have a third person narrator, play like Oedipus Rex conveys the plot through dialogue.
             An example of this is when the messenger tells Choragos what has become of Jocasta and Oedipus. Sophocles writes, "For the King ripped from her gown the golden brooches/ That was her ornament, and raised them, and plunged them down/ Straight into his eyeballs..." (1417). When Aristotle mentioned embellished language in his description of a tragedy, he meant that tragedies are written in verse, like poetry. Oedipus Rex once again meets this requirement, because while it does not rhyme, Sophocles wrote it as a poem. Aristotle continues with his definition of tragedy, stating it pertains to men of rank who fall from grace and whose fall earns pity from the reader or audience. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, a king, falls from power due to his unfortunate actions and fate. Upon discovering he is his father's murderer and is married to his mother, Oedipus blinds himself and begs to be exiled or killed. The impossibly painful act of gouging one's eyes out causes the reader to feel pity for Oedipus, the tragic hero. The audience may experience relief at the fact that their eyes are still intact while feeling sorrow for Oedipus's excruciating loss of sight. This also applies to the point in the play when Oedipus learns that Jocasta, his wif...