Aristotle considers Sophocles' Oedipus Rex as the perfect example of tragedy. Explain why.With examples from the play please.

In Aristotle's Poetics, he outlines
the major principles of tragedy, citing Sophocles' Oedipus as the
paragon of the form.

Aristotle's reasons are clear: to be
the perfect tragedy the play must have a perfect plot.
Oedipus follows the classic Aristotelian triangle of
rising action, climax, and falling action.  The play is full of dramatic irony (the
audience knows more than the tragic hero) and verbal irony (the use of sarcasm,
understatement, and overstatement).  It has the classic "reversal of
fortune" in which Oedipus thinks he is innocent, but then soon realizes
he is guilty.

The play must also have the
perfect tragic hero.  He cannot be perfect; otherwise, his
fall is not warranted.  Conversely, he cannot be a criminal who rises to power--that too
is unrealistic.  So, Oedipus avoids these two
extremes: Oedipus is a great man, but he also suffers from two great
vices (anger and pride), so he is ripe for both greatness and a great
fall.

Lastly, the play has the three unities,
which leads to the greatest level of
catharsis (purgation of pity and
fear):

readability="12">

The unity of action: a play
should have one main action that it follows, with no or few
subplots.

The unity of place: a play
should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor
should the stage represent more than one
place.

The unity of time: the action
in a play should take place over no more than 24
hours.