As a figure-of-merit, the rising ratio of crack propagation resistance to fracture initiation resistance indicates a reduction of the brittleness and enhances the thermal shock resistance of ordinary refractory ceramics. The significant nonlinear fracture behaviour is related to the development of a fracture process zone (FPZ). The universal dimensionless load–displacement diagram method is applied as a promising graphical method for the determination of R-curves for magnesia refractories showing different brittleness. By applying digital image correlation (DIC) together with the graphical method, the problems arisen with accurate determination of the fracture initiation resistance and the crack length are overcome. Meanwhile, the R-curve is subdivided with respect to the fracture processes, viz the fracture initiation, the development of FPZ and the onset of traction free macro-crack. With the simultaneous crack lengths evaluated from DIC, the contribution of each fracture process to the crack propagation resistance at certain loading stage is quantitatively presented.