Abstract
Aristotle based his famous works on tragedy on the analysis of what he considered to be the "perfect", paradigm of tragedy- Sophocle's carefully Crafted Oedipus the King. The myth of Oedipus has been studied, analysed, spread worldwide and widely used by writers, even philosophers such as Freud, to illustrate the concept of incest, a reality at the very heart of Sophocles' tragedy. The conflictual nature of the revelation of this incest inexorably suggests that the dynamics of family conflicts are extensively present in Oedipus the King. Yet is this example sufficient to affirm that "the root of all chaos stems from the family?" Arthur Miller's tragedy, Death of A Salesman, although written centuries after Sophocles' tragedy, focuses on the progressive demise of Willy Loman, a demise both psychological and physical, a tragic evolution brought about clearly by the dynamics of conflictual family relationships.
