Oedipus Rex In the play Oedipus Rex, it tells of a man who is forced by fate to live a life of lies and deceet. He is hounded by prophecy and cursed to a doomed existance. Aristotle had believed that Oedipus Rex was one of the penultimate tragedies of all time. Aristotle broke what he thought was the perfect tragic play into three main parts. "Two elements of the tragic plot, then, are Reversal and Recognition. A third element is Suffering.(aristotle, 77)" Oedipus is a text-book example of this analysis. It follows the reversal when the messenger comes with the news of Oedip