Oedipus The King

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

The task of tragedy is to bring ‘Catharsis’ to all its spectators, the belief of witnessing a spectacle consisting of tragic themes, is to provide the spectators a feeling of being cleansed and renewed which purges the spectators’ emotions. However, the idea was to strike pity and fear to all who go to see it. Tragedy is commonly defined as a play involving a main character who is born of royal blood with good intentions, the mistakes they commit leads to their downfall. However, what makes Oedipus The King a highly-regarded piece of Greek Theatre is due to Oedipus not realising that he has already fulfilled his fate by committing the deeds that were

During the Ancient Greek period, Aristotle, a great philosopher, wrote a book called the Poetics to describe what makes a great tragic play. Using the Oedipus Rex by Sophocles as the basis for his book, Aristotle goes into great detail about plot, character, and much more, breaking up the components of a tragedy. Since Oedipus Rex had a huge part in the creation of Aristotle’s book, it fulfills many of the Greek philosopher’s requirements for a tragic play.

From the very beginning, what makes Oedipus ' actions in his quarrel with Teiresias and also throughout the play so dramatically compelling, is the fact that the audience knows the outcome of the story. We know Oedipus ' fate even before he does, and there is no suspense about the outcome itself, instead, the audience anxiously awaits Oedipus to reveal his fate unto himself in his desperate quest to rid his city of the terrible plague, or maybe even more so, to simply discover his own unfortunate tale. Oedipus is relentless in his pursuit of the truth, and his determination is commendable. There is nothing that compels him to act in this way, instead he freely chooses, with much zeal, to initiate the chain of events that will ultimately lead to his downfall. It is this interplay between Oedipus’ own free will and his fated eventuality that is the crux of the play, and constitutes the main dramatic power.

There are many characteristics that make someone a tragic hero. In the story Oedipus The King, there are several characteristics that benefit Oedipus as a ruler. In the play Oedipus The King, Oedipus displays three heroic characteristics: he is a man of action, caring, and trustworthy.

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.

According to the great French playwright, Jean Racine, “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” (“Quotes about Tragedy”). Racine’s observation would likely be embraced by the playwrights of ancient Greece, where plays were written in the style of three major categories: comedy, tragedy, or satyr play. According to Jacobus, Greek tragedies were the first plays to be performed in competition (Jacobus, 30). Plays are classified as tragedies when they present a powerful protagonist undergoing extreme suffering, the theme of fate, and the end-goal of a catharsis. Tragic heroes are defined by their easily identified character development pattern, as well as their tragic flaw. Oedipus Rex is the perfect example of a tragedy, and the protagonist, Oedipus, is the quintessential 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

In the reading it’s clear that the greeks view the Sophocles play “Oedipus the king” a hero. A tragic hero is defined as a person of noble birth with heroic qualities. The person who considered a tragic hero is either fated by the Gods, by a supernatural force, or is doomed from the start but must encounter suffering in some form. They must also have positive parts in their character. Meaning as they may have faults they out way their faults with their positive ones making them a true tragic hero such as Oedipus.

King Laius was married to Jocasta, a distant cousin. He was expected to be killed based off Apollo’s oracle. Apollo’s oracle stated that King Laius were be killed by his son. To rid of this oracle once his son was born he tied his feet together and left his son on a mountain by himself. King Laius was killed and everyone thought that it was five robbers who killed him. One of the robbers lived. Oedipus arrived in the country of Thebes to leave his “father” Polybus who again was expected to be killed by his son. Polybus was Oedipus’s father after his real father gave him up. When Oedipus come to Thebes he solved the riddle that was unsolvable. Sphinx, a monster

In the play “Oedipus The King” the hamartia or the tragic flaw is that Oedipus try to defy the prophecy of the gods, which lead down the path of what he feared most, completing the prophecy. Oedipus ran away from home avoid to prophecy, but he ran into his real father killing him and took the throne leading him to marry his mother. All of it happen without him knowing that the prophecy have been completed.

Throughout history there have been many diverse works of true literary brilliance. Many of these scholarly texts have withstood the test of time and have been evaluated and critiqued over the centuries. One such example is the tragedies that originated from Ancient Greece. Greek historians have preserved the manuscripts of numerous and now famous tragedies, which have been taught for generations in English classes around the world. Through the tragedies, the readers or observers learn from the emotions evoked by the story being told. In feeling these emotions and witnessing the plight of the protagonists, the audience will gain knowledge from personifying these plights and reflecting into themselves. The tragedy of Oedipus exemplifies

Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex is arguably one of the greatest tragedies ever written. Written and performed in Ancient Greece, Oedipus is a character well known to the Greeks, forever known as an example of one’s inability to escape their fate. According to Aristotle’s Poetics, a tragic hero faces a change in fortune “from good to bad”, as a result of “frailty in character” – otherwise known as hamartia or a tragic flaw (Aristotle’s Poetics 3). In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus follows the paradigm of a tragic hero, specifically through his tragic flaws of ignorance and anger, and is utilized by Sophocles’ to evoke feelings of fear and pity from the audience. Although Sophocles’ intended for Oedipus to relate to the audience of Ancient Greeks, a modern

Oedipus the King    The Greek period, in the fourth and fifth centuries of B.C., evolved from a small city called Athens, Europe.  In this era, a sweep of talent and creativity placed a historical advance on theater, that will dominate for years to come.  This spirit most likely emerged from the defeat of the Persian Empire, along with the sense of freedom and expression from the Athenian democracy.  Four great writers derived from this ancient astonishment.  Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were three writers of tragedy, whereas Aristophanes was a famous comic dramatist.  From these original works came the play festivals using masks and boots to accommodate for the

A clever woman once said, “Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.” The story of Oedipus is a genuinely complex one, including inexplicable accounts of patricide and incest; malefaction. Oedipus was a ruler, a king, he was a driven and motivated man who put his all into all that he did, but is a social status enough to cover a crime?