How do an author’s techniques establish the recurring paradox raised by the tragic genre? I have called upon the valuable arguments offered by Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, and Nietzsche to help the student and lay reader understand the operation of basic literary languages. But fiction is not philosophy. My study focuses on the narrative sequence, im-ages, and rhetorical devices that embody a dilemma envisioned by prominent tragedians in both the ancient and modern worlds.