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Writing, particularly story writing, is an art. When a person sets out to create a painting, there are certain rules of composition that need to be followed. In the art of writing, it is the same. There are rules of composition for writing and they must be followed by the writer. Some of these rules date back to Aristotle, who set down some rules for classical drama in his Poetics, a collection of class notes in which Aristotle attempted “to treat of Poetry in itself and of its various kinds” (1028). These rules, adhered to by great writers for centuries, were preceded by at least one great classical work: Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Interestingly, even though Oedipus the King came before Poetics, Sophocles’ play illustrates Aristotle’s rules for classical drama. Oedipus the King particularly displays a tragic emotion, a tragic character, and a tragic fall according to Aristotle’s rules.
Aristotle says that a tragedy should “imitate actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark of tragi
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As shown by these examples, Oedipus the King illustrates Aristotle’s rules for classical drama. He exclaims “nothing can dishonor me, ever” (1355-1356).
Aristotle also writes that such a drama ought to have a change “accompanied by …a reversal, or by recognition, or by both” (1035). He is called “greater than any man” (52). Perhaps the truest rules for the art of writing were there before Poetics, or before any such set of rules was written out. Although Oedipus the King came before Aristotle’s Poetics, it still holds to the same principles. The change in Oedipus the King is, as Aristotle says it should be, accompanied by a reversal and a recognition (1035). Yet he is condemned to murder his father and to sleep with his mother (1481-1484).
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