Analysis of Oedipus Rex by Aristotle Aristotle is the most influential philosopher in the history of Western thought. A Greek drama by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, was praised in Aristotle's Poetics as a model for classical tragedy and is still considered a prime example of the genre. In this essay I will analyze the Oedipus Rex using Aristotle's concepts praxis, poiesis, theoria. Thought and character determine people's actions. They only indicate the fundamental meaning of action, but if you want to understand how the arts imitate action more than simply in the concepts of thought and character, you should explore the concept of it a little deeper. Action arises from character and thought. Aristotle believes that a man's character makes him act in certain ways, but he only acts in response to changing circumstances in his life, and it is his perception that shows him what to look for and what to avoid in each situation. Furthermore, in Aristotle's psychology, action and character are formed by ill-defined emotions, which he calls pathos. Therefore in every tragedy the element of it is essential. If we want to understand the action of Oedipus Rex we must focus on the relationship between the pathos with which the actual work begins and ends, and the aim which is to find the killer, which produces the events of the story. Action and passion or (praxis and pathos) are in stark contrast. The action is simply active: the character perceives something he wants, and gradually ?moves? towards it. Passion, on the other hand, is passive: the character suffers something that he cannot control, and therefore ?he is moved? Therefore. This can be best illustrated in the Prologue to Oedipus Rex, Thebes… at the center of the book and unrivaled in its completeness. Works Cited and Consulted Barnes, Jonathan. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Revised ed. vol. 2. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1984. Benardete, Seth. “Sophocles?” Oedipus Tyrant.? In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Ehrenberg, Victor. ?Sophocles Rulers: Oedipus.? In Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Grene, Marjorie. A portrait of Aristotle. Chicago: U of C, 1963.Murray, Robert D. Jr. ?Sophocles? Moral themes.? In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 1997.?Sophocles? In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984.