Sympathy for Oedipus in the Oedipus TyrannusThe purpose of tragedy is to evoke fear and pity, according to Aristotle, who cited the Oedipus Tyrannus as the definitive tragic work. So pity must be produced by comedy at some point. However, this does not necessarily mean that Oedipus is to be pitied. We feel great sympathy ("pathos") for Jocasta's suicide and for the fate of Oedipus' daughters. Oedipus could arouse fear in us, not pity. He is the king of a cursed city willing to use desperate methods, even torture, to extract the truth from the Shepherd. His contempt for Jocasta shortly before her death creates little pity in him, as does his reproach towards the old and blind Tiresias. But with this considered, we must not forget the suffering he endures during his quest for knowledge and the ignorant self-destruction he encounters. Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother, with whom he fathers four children. These are terrible, wicked, immoral and illegal crimes. However, the fact that he carries them out in ignorance, without being aware of his actions, attributes them to a grave misfortune and a cruel fate. He even attempted, in vain, to avoid the fulfillment of this fate by leaving his believed hometown of Corinth after hearing it told to him at the Oracle of Apollo ("I heard all this and ran" 876). Thus, when it is revealed to him, this sudden revelation of his crimes in the span of a day leads him to blind himself so that he can no longer see what he has done ("Nothing I could see could bring me joy" 1473). The blinding was not required by fate and is in fact self-inflicted, but he believes it is just punishment for what he has done, and in doing so he regains some control over his destiny ("the hand that hit my eyes was mine.. .. .. half of the sheet ......they are evoked but against the divinely intended destiny and we feel pity for Oedipus, their toy, who has no more power to change his life than to change his past.Works cited and consulted: Badger, Vincent M. "Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus: A Map of the Soul" www.cadvision.com/hooker-perron/badger.htm (30 October 1999) Dodds, E.R., The Ancient Concept of Progress and Other Essays on. Greek Literature and Belief, London. Oxford University Press, 1973. Harsh, Philip Whaley, A Handbook of Classical Drama, Stanford, CA.: Stanford University Press, 1967. Murray, Robert D. Jr. "Thought and Structure in tragedy of Sophocles", in Sophocles, A Collection of Critical Essays, Woodward, Thomas, publisher, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1966. Segal, Charles Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New York: Twayne, 1993.