Oedipus, A Tragic Hero

Sophocles presented the world with Oedipus around 2500 years ago. Never-the-less, the story remains among the most riveting of all time. Unfortunately, today when we hear the mention of the name Oedipus we place negative connotations around it. Oedipus, after all, had an unnatural sexual relationship with his own mother! In actuality, however, this relationship emerged entirely innocently. Oedipus was not some misguided sexual pervert of an earlier time. He was, in fact, a man that was driven by a very high internal moral standard. It was that internal moral standard that ultimately entwined him in a sequence of events

In order to gain a proper perspective on the concept of what a tragic hero is, we must synthesize information from the following play’s, “The Death Of A Salesman”, and “Oedipus The King”. Both plays takes the stance on the idea that validates the ultimate notion,  “tragic hero. From Willy’s hubris personality to his questionable and mysterious death, to Oedipus dynamic and complex choices and kingly personality that determines his fate. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement that leads to his/her downfall. In other words, even though both characters made incredible contributions and left a very noble legacy, their choices and decisions determined their ultimate fate. In today’s world tragic heroes are commonly present,

By definition tragic heroes can be considered one who is held up high by society for the good deeds they bring, but is then slowly or quickly taken away from that grace and placed in a world far below what they were originally. An example of this is the excerpt and the tragedy of Oedipus the king. The play shows that the faults humanity can fall through when put into a very stressful situation. Oedipus is a tragic hero because he wants to improve the lives of his citizens, he has a major human flaw of being impulsive and easily irritable, Oedipus takes more punishment than what the play told, his life and fate was not fully under his control, and he makes a vast realization with an equal amount of change.

Captivating heroes like Batman and Robin have become inspirational figures of modern day society that people love, but do they really dive into how tragic their lives really are? What happened to the truly emotional stories of tragedy rather than 15 minutes of non-important backstory? These heroes had done great things in their life, but fell gracefully from power due to selfish inhibitions and get remembered for how their mess up affected everyone else in the vicinity. Why can’t stories be as tragic as Sophocles’ Oedipus the King? He was a true tragic hero that saved his city and fell due to several flawed character traits. His drop from power came about because of his sense of hubris and ignorance to the presence of facts around him. People’s lives in the media should invoke more tragedy and suffering, making the character more relatable due to his flaws. While this doesn’t happen often, there are a few characters, like Duncan Dewey, that possess traits that make them tragic heroes.

In Aristotle's work, the tragic hero can get caught up by hamartia which ends up leading him to his downfall. In Oedipus the King, which is a tragic play that is written by Sophocles it shows King Oedipus having many different flaws that are under the protection of hamartia that include madness, stubbornness, and pride that soon that end up leading to his final death. Oedipus shows an attitude of stubbornness during the progression of the play. Oedipus' stubbornness is uncovered early in the play when Tiresias who is a prophet of Apollo, mentions to Oedipus to terminate the investigation of Laius' killer. Oedipus quickly disagrees with him, he wants to find the man who murdered Lauis and brought the plague upon Thebes. Oedipus states, "By all the gods, do not deny us what you know. We ask you, all of us, on bended knees." Tiresias' persistence to withhold the truth is demolished by Oedipus' stubbornness and madness. Tiresias surrenders to Oedipus' stubbornness and states the truth which outrages Oedipus; "...The murder of the man whose murder you pursue is you." Oedipus stubbornness is so overpowering that he disregards Tiresias' bluntness without even a slight thought. Oedipus' statement, "To your heart's content. Mouth away!" which obviously shows his stubbornness when he disregards Tiresias' prophecy and regards it as gibberish. Oedipus' stubborn persistence will ultimately lead to his mother's death. At the end of the play Oedipus becomes aware that he was adopted and instantaneously investigates his origin. Jocasta, Oedipus' wife hesitantly encourages Oedipus to end his identity search, fearing that Oedipus would learn of his shameful sins of killing

"A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." -Aristotle No one wants to be a tragic hero. A great or virtuous character, but sadly they are destined for downfall because of their own judgement. Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

“The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves”, quote by Sophocles. Sophocles is a ancient Greek writer who created multiple plays including the tragic and heartbreaking play called Oedipus the King. Oedipus the King is a tragedy about a young king, Oedipus, who tries to help his land from disease by finding the murderer of the former king. But by solving this mystery Oedipus unravels a tragic truth about his family and fate. Over past years, they’ve been controversy of whether Oedipus is known as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is someone who makes a mistake or error that eventually leads to someone's downfall. Although there are many ways supporting Oedipus as not a tragic hero, there are multiple characteristics that define Oedipus as a

Aristotle’s tragic hero is one of the most recognizable types of heroes among literature. A tragic hero combines five major points all of which have to do with the hero’s stature in society, his faults, how these faults effect him, the punishment his faults gets him, and how he reacts to this punishment. Aristotle explained that the story of Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, is a perfect example of a tragic hero. In the play, Oedipus is given a prophecy in which he is told that he will kill his father then marry his mother. As in many Greek plays, Oedipus tries to run from his prophecy and ends up fulfilling exactly what it is foretold. Through the play we see that Oedipus posses many of the characteristics

In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.

Oedipus is one of the most famous tragic heroes in drama history. His bizarre fate leads him to a tragic defeat that leaves the audience and reader feeling emotionally overwhelmed. According to Aristotle’s definition, Oedipus’ story makes him as a tragic hero. Oedipus is the personification of Aristotle’s characterization of a tragic hero through his ability to maintain and keep his virtue and wisdom, despite his shortcomings and situation in life. Aristotle’s observation of a tragic hero does not reveal the lack of morality or the evil of the character, based on an error in judgment. The tragedy and drama fit the Aristotelian characteristics of Oedipus.

What is a hero? In traditional play write the hero is someone with pure qualities sent by either an unforeseen force, destiny, or a quest to save someone or a country. The word “hero” can be a loose term today, but the result is the same. The hero completes his mission, brings happiness to all, and continues living. In some tales, the hero does not make it, but still becomes a beacon of hope or falls valiantly causing an up roar by society to take matters into their own hands. The result? Happiness, a completed objective, what was wrong is now right by societal standards. This “hero” would be the ideal character, someone fated to bring happiness to a world without one. However, on the other hand, a tragic hero is not. A tragic hero is fated by unwritten law and by divine intervention of achieving said happiness. Instead the tragic hero incites pity and fear to the utmost degree. Turning a blind eye to the truth, and the limits of free will, are all tested and proved fruitless in the end by the power of the unwritten law by the gods. Thus, making Oedipus the ideal tragic hero.

exercising his free choice by making bad decisions . Oedipus certainly meets these portrayals of a tragic hero. The dialect of tragedy consists of two circles: one is a relative point and the other is impacted and the effect on its audience. Sophocles and Aristotle’s achieve that task with absolute clearness. The modern reader, coming to the classic drama not entirely to the enjoyment, will not always surrender himself to the emotional effect. He is apt to worry about Greek ‘fatalism’ and the justice of the downfall of Oedipus, and, finding no satisfactory solution for these intellectual difficulties, loses half the pleasure that the drama was intended to produce . In dramatizing stories, there will dependably blends of passionate sentiments, suspense, and fervor to discover what’s

Aristotle argues that in a tragedy a hero must possess a tragic flaw that leads to his or her ruin. An example that backs up this argument is Sophocles’s tragedian play, Oedipus Rex, in which its protagonist was a victim of such fatal flaws that caused ruination in his life. In this case, Oedipus tragic flaws were both his anger and his pride. Furthermore, the fate that Oedipus suffered because of such flaws not only caused his downfall, but also the death of those he cherished. The tragic flaws that Oedipus possessed made fate and free will be more conspicuous throughout the play; additionally, it showed how valuable these things are when making decisions.

In the Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King, Oedipus struggles to accept the truth and he lets his temper over power him. Throughout the tragedy, he displays all the necessary elements to be categorized as a tragic hero as defined by Aristotle. His refusal to accept the truth led to Oedipus’ downfall. A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, “is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.” Based off this definition, Sophocles’ Oedipus clearly exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

Thesis: In Sophocles’ “Oedipus”, Oedipus is exemplified as a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s definition because his story appeals to the reader’s humanity in the way he maintains his strengths after inadvertently causing his own downfall.