This document analyzes the unity of action in Sophocles' play Oedipus the King. It discusses how Aristotle considered Oedipus the King to be the perfect tragedy due to its unified action. Each incident in the play directly causes the next through a chain of events. The climax occurs when Oedipus' true identity is revealed, leading to Jocasta's suicide and Oedipus blinding himself and leaving Thebes. The document analyzes how the play adheres to Aristotle's principles of tragedy by having one continuous action that builds to a reversal and resolution.

1. Name - Pandya Riva m.
Roll No-29
Paper-Literary Theory and Criticism
Topic- Unity of Action in Oedipus the
King.
Email Id – rivapandya.rp@gmail.com

2. “Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is
serious complete and with each kind of
artistic ornament the several kinds being
found in separate parts of action , not of
narrative.”

3.  A play should have one action that it follows ,
with minimal subplots.
 Nothing happens that does not in some way
specifically advance the action forward.
 Aristotle says that the action of tragedy must
be complete. It should have a beginning ,
middle and end.
 Aristotle outlined the ingredients for good
tragedy and based his formula on what he
considered to be the perfect tragedy
Sophocles’s Oedipus the king.

4.  Each of the incidents in this play is part of a tightly
constructed cause and effect chain.
 The plague in Thebes prompts Oedipus to send
Creon to consult the oracle of Delphi, the oracle’s
reply the murderer of Louis must be banished from
Thebes prompts Oedipus pronounce a solman
curse on the murderer and to send for Teriesias.
 Teriesias states that Oedipus is the murderer but
the king knows himself to be innocent.
 The quarrel of Oedipus and Creon brings Jocasta
from the house and she told that he was killed at a
place where three roads meet.
 Oedipus begins to suspect that he may indeed
have killed the king without knowing who he was.

5. Meanwhile a messenger arrives to inform
Oedipus that his supposed father king
Polybius has died.
 Oedipus rejoice that he did not kill his father
but he still worried that he may marry his
mother.
The messenger innocently tell him that
Polybius and Merope were not his real
parents.(peripeteia).

6. The arrival of the messenger is the only
action in the play that is not directly caused
by a previous action.
When the Herdsman arrives and tell their
stories, the whole truth emerges.
This is the climax ,or turning point of the
plot the truth about Oedipus leads directly
to the suicide of Jocasta and Oedipus self
–blind and request to be exiled.
The departure of Oedipus from Thebes will
lift the plague.(Resolution).

7.  Aristotle's main points are of great value for an
understanding of Greek tragic drama, particularly
significant is his statement that the plot is the most
important element of tragedy.
 The peripatetic of the play is the messenger’s
reversal of intention .
 As Aristotle recommends, this is directly connected
to the anagnorisis.
 Scenes of suffering with Creon and his
children(Catastrophe).
 An actions can be considered a reversal of intention
and each gives him a little more knowledge of truth
that will lead to his downfall.

8. Fall of
hero
Circum-
stances
Hast
Error Of
judgme
nt
Ignoran
ce

9. Oedipus directly causes his own downfall
not because he is evil but he does not
know who he is.
He is not morally guilty but he is radically
ignorant.
Sophocles does not present him as a
unique case but rather as “a man like
ourselves”.