Catharsis in Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus Rex’

Humans are a vessel to a myriad of emotions; happiness, sadness, regret, remorse, excitement, fear, and pity. The list goes on and on. Some emotions cannot even be described in words. They do not have names associated with them in the dictionary. The human heart can only feel them. Catharsis, on the other side of the spectrum, does not even qualify as an emotion. In simple words, catharsis is an amalgamation of the feelings of pity and fear, that one person goes through the experience of another. We can also use it in the place of words like “purification”, “cleansing” and “purging of emotions”. It is said that in neoclassical times, ‘catharsis’ was considered being an allopathic intervention with the “unlike curing the unlike”. In this context, the term ‘unlike’ refers to two different things ameliorating one another in peculiar ways, like art inducing emotions in people like that of fright and sympathy or awe and terror, at the same time.

Aristotle, a renowned philosopher, precisely describes Catharsis as “the purging of emotions of pity and fear that are aroused in an audience of tragedy”. There is still a lot of ambiguity and an ongoing debate on what Aristotle actually means by this, but for the most part, we can deduce that he relates the concept of catharsis not to the emotions of the audiences but to the happenings that occur in the tragedy’s plot. If we talk about what tragedy is exactly, most critics oversimplify tragedy to merely an axiological concept or to a neurophysiological state of mind, or a majority of critics still abide by the abstract conception of tragedy that was given to them in Poetics by Aristotle (George Kimmelman, 1946). Kimmelman argued that while it is true that tragic literature has evolved throughout the years, many people still qualify a piece of writing by judging it on the following threshold to consider it a tragedy: 1. The struggling protagonist gives in to his fateful antagonists which may be Nature, Society, Gods, or his own Satanic impulses. 2. The exaltation of his heroic deeds and also the build-up of events led him to a mammoth-like doom. 3. The power and will to attain catharsis by inducing feelings of “pity” and “terror”.

In other words, ‘tragedy’ is an immaculate paradox of pleasure being enkindled by the abhorrent, the ugly, and the vitriolic incidents. Catharsis, therefore, refers to “the tragic variety of pleasure”, in simple terms. I. A Richards holds an interesting and exceedingly different opinion about ‘catharsis’. He calls this a psychological process and further adds that “Fear is an impulse to withdraw while pity is the impulse to approach.” He combines together two dichotomous ideas and explains it in a scientific way adding, that “both these impulses are harmonized and blended in tragedy” and concludes by stating that “this balance brings relief and harmony”. One major argument that a critic presented, as mentioned in the initial paragraph, was that catharsis in neoclassical times was considered to be an allopathic treatment. However, F.L Lucas, a well-known philosophy critic shuns this as a medical metaphor saying that “the theatre is not a hospital”. With this, we can cogitate over how different people hold different opinions about whether or not catharsis is a medical, moral, or religious term. Albeit, one thing that we can all agree upon is that it is an intellectual term that stimulates deep thought and excites the human curiosity to analyze and reveal its greater meanings.

This masterpiece called Oedipus Rex, penned by the evergreen of intellectuals, Sophocles still stands tall on its feet because of the grandiosity of its themes and the meticulously crafted storyline which deals with the tragic reckoning of the Hero of the play called Oedipus, the titular character. Sophocles has masterfully showcased catharsis by imitating it and carefully wrapping it in repentance in his play. In reading this play, we observed that the audience not only develops an emotional connection with the tragic hero, Oedipus but also tends to vicariously pity for his great fall. These tiny yet cardinal “attachments” are what Aristotle conveniently puts as “catharsis”. Oedipus’ is initially shown as someone with a noble stature and status who earns respect from his people in the City of Thebes and beyond, for the strength of his character and his undying fearlessness with which he combatted the Curse of the Sphinx, the demonic monster guarding the ins and outs of Thebes.

The residents of Thebes rejoiced his presence in their town so much that Creon, declared him King and hence, the husband of his sister, Queen Jocasta. Now, what is of superior importance is that Oedipus was brought up by parents who belonged to royalty as well. He was raised by Polybus and Merope, the royal couple of Corinth. Oedipus, being the man of morals and principles he was, left the city of Corinth because the news of an unfortunate prophecy about him was broken him. The Oracle of Delphi stated that he would kill his father and marry his mother and become the king. Oedipus decided to part ways with his parents just so he would not be able to prove the prophecy right. On his way to another city, he crossed ways with King Laius with his caravan and he happened to have killed him without knowing his identity. Later on, when he was married off to Jocasta and had five children with her, he was given the doleful tidings that the woman who gave birth to her is now the mother of his children as well. This news ripped apart Jocasta and Oedipus to bits. This “hamartia”, which is Greek for ‘tragic flaw’, is the be-all-end-all of Oedipus’ fate. In this case, his hamartia is his deficient knowledge about his own identity which leads him to his ruin.

Oedipus and Jocasta get a reaction of great pity and empathy from the audiences when they both hurt themselves in ways that couldn’t be undone. Jocasta, when learned about this news, committed suicide while Oedipus blinded himself as a form of self-punishment. Oedipus’ sin makes him extremely despicable in the eyes of the audience, but at the same time, the permanence of his epic downfall stirs feelings of compassion within them for a calamitous closure of his life. Sophocles, as a playwright, has done an excellent job in making the spectators feel these odd emotions so deeply, partly because of the multi-faceted plot and the evolution of this tragic hero throughout.