Medea Jouranl # 3

Journal: Compare the elements of tragedy in Medea and Oedipus. Look specifically at at the use of catharsis. Pay attention to how you organize your comparison. Be sure you start with a thesis/topic sentence.

In Medea and Oedipus the order of the catharsis is very built up very different changing the book.

In Medea

The story is first built up out of pity for Medea's situation and then it evokes fear in the audience for how Medea character turns out so full of hate and anger toward Jason. By building up the pity first and then using the fear of Medea and the drastic actions she resolves the pity with the fear almost balanceing them out by the end of the play resolving them.

In Oedipus sophocles builds up to the catharsis very differently. In Oedipus first the fear is built up and then the pity is evoked by his situation and it remove the fear and then it resolves it when he finally learns the truth.

Both Oedipus and Medea are different in how the cartharsis is reached but the have many other similar tragic elements. Both tragic heros are well off people that are above normal people of society that suffer. In both plays the suffering of the character starts before the play starts and the truth and polt is gradually revealed about what happened to them. Another tragic element of the play that in the end both heros take something vauable to them away from themselves. In Medea its here boys and in Oedipus it is his eyes because his eyes and seeing mean so much to him and this is revelaed in his mockery of Teiresisas