Oedipus Hamartia

Oedipus The King is a tragedy written by Sophocles that emphasises the conflict of human knowledge versus divine knowledge using irony. Human knowledge is limited and very short-sighted, while divine knowledge has no restrictions meaning a person with divine knowledge has a clear idea of the “big picture”. Sophocles uses irony to emphasise the difference in knowledge. Oedipus is the son of Laius, and when the Oracles of Delphi prophesies that Laius will be killed by the hands of his son, Laius leaves the baby (Oedipus) on top of a mountain to die. Oedipus gets rescued and grows up in Corinth, raised by King Polybus as if he were his own son. Still thinking Polybus is his father, Oedipus leaves Corinth when he finds out that he is destined to

As the new leader of Thebes Oedipus is overly confident in himself and believes that he knows all he needs to about himself along with the land he rules over. So when plague strikes the peaceful city the, priest goes to Oedipus asking for the king to find a cure for this sickness. Oedipus states “You are all sick, I know it; and in your sickness There is not one of you so sick as I. For in your case his own particular pain Comes to each singly; but my heart at once groans for the city… By many ways through labyrinths of care; And the one remedy that I could find By careful seeking-- I supplied it” (Sophocles 3). As king Oedipus plays a role where he is supposed to know everything, along with find the answers to all of the problems that the city faces. Yet, Oedipus is far from finding the remedy since he is unknowingly the cause for the plague in Thebes. Then when Oedipus finds out that in order to put an end to the plague he must find the murderer of the last king of Thebes he states “ I shall dispel this plague-spot; for the man, Whoever it may be, who murdered him, Lightly might hanker to serve me the same. I benefit myself in aiding him”(Sophocles 6). This scene is extremely ironic, Oedipus vows to dispose of the murderer which is actually himself. Along with this Oedipus states that the man may also want to kill him as well and he would be helping himself by finding out who killed the last king. Shedding to light that Oedipus is actually the man that killed Laius is what actually led to Oedipus’s downfall. Without knowing that it was actually him who killed the king, Oedipus is shown have a strong passion for putting this man to justice, yet the closer he gets to

The play, Oedipus the King by Sophocles presents a grim hamartia caused from a terrible deed of long ago. Oedipus the protagonist is the powerful King of Thebes and held of high estate by the people of Thebes. As the terrible deed of Oedipus’s becomes apparent to both Oedipus and the City of Thebes his tragic flaw is slowly realized. The play will show “tragic power resides in human failing, hamartia, constantly underpinning any sense of the inevitable” (Walton). The play will show the author’s view of a tragic hero as seen in the play Oedipus the King does exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

As Oedipus rambles on about who has the information that will solve the mysteries of his birth, he starts to get angry or outraged about people in the chorus and Jocasta telling him to stop searching for the answer and leave how everything is. Oedipus is so confident and arrogant that he asserted, “Nothing will move me. I will find out the whole truth.” This remark about finding the mystery of his birth sends Jocasta to storm to the palace and hang herself. As the play goes on further the shepard finally appears and gives him the tragic and heart-wrenching news, Oedipus goes into a state of anagnorisis and dramatically recognizes “O God! It has all come true. Light, let this be the last time I see you. I stand revealed - born in shame, married in shame, an unnatural murder.” When the Oedipus later enters the stage with his eyes gouged he weakly said, “Where am I going? Pity me! Where does my voice range to through the air? O spirit, what a leap you made!” It is this quote that shows peripeteia, it is the where Oedipus turned from confident and arrogant to a pitiful and blind. Sophocles presents the theme that confidence is a great trait but can ultimately led to one’s

“Now my curse on the murderer. Whoever he is, a lone man unknown in his crime - or one among many, let that man drag out his life in agony, step by painful step - I curse myself as well … if by any chance He proves to be an intimate of our house, Here at my hearth, with my full knowledge, May the curse I just called down on him strike me!”(p. 1137). Oedipus’s intense pride or hubris, and his steadfast determination to uncover the mystery of Laius’s murder ironically leads him to unwittingly curse himself.

In Sophocles play Oedipus the King, Sophocles depicts the horrible fate of Oedipus, a pompous, arrogant young ruler. The story begins in the Greek town of Thebes. A plague has descended upon the Thebians causing death and famine throughout the land. Oedipus, being the heroic king, takes full responsibility to find out the cause of their aliments. While working to discover the source of the plague, Oedipus stumbles upon the tragic truth of his heritage and the horrifying implications of his appointment to the throne. Unfortunately for Oedipus, everything ends in tragedy. With the suicide of his mother/wife and the self-inflicted blindness followed by exile from Thebes, Oedipus paved the path to his own

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

Early on in the story, Oedipus is the proud and confident king of Thebes; he is a man that is not to be underestimated or degraded. This once undisputed fact becomes more debatable the longer the play continues, however. The conflict begins with Oedipus attempting to lift a curse that has been unleashed on the kingdom of Thebes. This curse was caused by the murder of the previous king, Laius, and the only way for it to be lifted is for the murderer to be exiled from Thebes. Oedipus works fervently to unravel the mystery behind who Laius’ killer was. However, each new discovery ends up incriminating Oedipus as the killer instead. Along the way Oedipus discovers that his supposed parents, the king and queen of Corinth, are not his true parents. This revelation pushes him to begin a new search for his biological parents, a search that eventually leads him to one of Lainus’ shepherds. It is this shepherd that reveals to King Oedipus that his mother is Jocasta, his current wife. Consequently, Oedipus falls into a fit of despair in which he stabs his own eyes out and confronts the consequences of his shameful existence. By the end of the play, Oedipus has not only lost his status as the king of Thebes, but has also been exiled from the kingdom and has become an outcast for all of society to hate. The transition Oedipus undergoes

Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, stresses the idea of who is blind and who can see by demonstrating that one cannot simply just run away from their mistakes and issues. As the story unfolds, each character makes several attempts to hide from the truth. Though the foul truths may seem to be masked within the darkness, they are eventually brought into the light, shining over the devious lies placed before it. Nevertheless, the real question lies within whether or not the person receiving the truth can endure it. By coping with the truth, one sees, but by denying it, one stays blind. One way or another, however, problems arise, secrets come out, and chaos ensues because one cannot stay blinded from the truth forever.

Oedipus Rex is one of three plays created by tragedian Sophocles. The story opens with a plague, threatening the lives of many in the city of Thebes, Oedipus’ kingdom. Oedipus, the next heir to the throne, addresses this to the people, Creon, also states the suffering crops, As Oedipus says that he is sick too, this shows his hubris. Oedipus is one of Sophocles’ most notable characters due to the fact that he depicts the “tragic hero” archetype. Oedipus’ “hubris” or pride was the cause of his own undoing, that was part of his initial character.

Plato’s third stage of awareness, Reason, is also reflected with Oedipus. Plato states that if one is within the third stage of awareness, that “he will see him in his own proper place, not in another.” (Plato 4) This idea says that if one enters the third stage of awareness, he understands who he is by new hypotheses. This applies to Oedipus when he says, “O God! I think I have just called down on myself a dreadful curse. . . not knowing what I did.” (Oedipus 43) Oedipus thinks about the new hypothesis that he made and it now feels more like reality. This is also revealing when he says, “I am dreadfully afraid the blind prophet can see. But tell me one more thing that will throw light on this. Was Laius poorly attended, or did he have a big bodyguard, like a king?” (44) Oedipus asks many new questions regarding his life with this situation, not knowing that his fate is already sealed.

One of the defining qualities of Greek tragedies is hamartia, or the protagonist’s tragic flaw. This flaw or weakness drives the plot forward, and can led to the demise of even the noblest of heroes. In “Oedipus the King” written by Sophocles, the protagonist, Oedipus was plagued with excessive pride and a short temper. Oedipus’ arrogance prevented him from seeing the truth, and ultimately led to the fulfillment of the prophecy he sought to prevent.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is about Oedipus, a man doomed by his fate. Like most tragedies, “Oedipus the King” contains a tragic hero, a heroic figure unable to escape his/her own doom. This tragic hero usually has a hamartia or a tragic flaw which causes his/hers’ downfall. The tragic flaw that Sophocles gives Oedipus is hubris (exaggerated pride or self-confidence), which is what caused Oedipus to walk right into the fate he sought to escape.

Traditionally, hamartia has been identified either as being a “tragic flaw”—a serious physical, psychological, or moral flaw in an otherwise impeccable character—or as being directly caused by such a flaw. For example, Laurence Berns states, “As a result of a flaw natural to his kind, the tragic hero harms and destroys those he loves most. It is those very qualities for which he is admired and honored that cause him to wreak great evils” (77). Oedipus, then, is said to be a just and noble ruler who cares for his people as though they were his own children. Indeed, Oedipus addresses the citizens of Thebes as “children” in Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus the King (111–113), and he burns with an admirable passion to discover the truths pertaining both to his own past and to the cause(s) behind the plague besetting his city . The fundamental purpose of this dramatic story is that a king picks up his legacy by killing Laius who is his father, so he can fill in as imperial ruler in Delphi. The metaphysical realities revealed through Oedipus' actions go beyond the noble/base, advantageous/injurious or pleasant/painful noted above. Oedipus' actions can be further defined as either virtuous (virtue) or vicious (vice). Virtue and vice are metaphysically manifested through Oedipus' actions in the play.

Hamartia is defined as a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero. Aristotle defines a tragic hero to be a man “who is not completely good and just, whose misfortune is brought out not by vice or immorality, but by some error or weakness.” The three key requirements of Aristotle in regards to a tragic hero are; a high social standing, goodness or moral excellence, or error committed by the hero in unawareness or ignorance. Two quality examples of men that portray Aristotle’s idea of a tragic hero, and who also fit the three main requirements are Oedipus Rex and Willy Loman. Oedipus Rex clearly and without a doubt answers to each of the three requirements laid out by Aristotle is regards to a tragic hero. He is a man of social reputation, and possesses exceptional qualities, but is in no means perfect. It is safe to say that Oedipus’ hamartia is the cause of his own downfall. Willy Loman on the other hand is also considered to be a tragic hero. Like Oedipus, Willy goes through his life, for the most part, blindly, and never really realizes the complete truth of himself. Through his delusional personality, and his continual blindness, Willy’s hamartia is also the main cause of his downfall, where in his case, leads to his death. Through further analysis of both Oedipus Rex and Willy Loman’s tragic flaws, along with literary criticism from Aristotle’s poetics, their hamartia, which ultimately leads them to their