Oedipus, an Ironic Tragic Hero

But, Jocasta refutes this by attempting to persuade to Oedipus to, “Listen, please listen to me! Do not do this!.” (line 1030) Jocasta desires to delay the grief that will soon be put upon Oedipus and herself by urging him not to send for the shepherd. Oedipus desires to find out the truth about himself, as he aclaims, “Humble though it may be, I want to know it.” (line 1043) Even if the messenger and the shepherd both tell the same tale, Oedipus would rather accept his fate good or bad. Oedipus is ready to reach his greatness, to achieve this he learns the painful truth that his mother is also his wife and that he has murdered his father. “Oh, oh, then everything has come out true/Light, I shall not look on you again/I have been born where I should not be born/I have married where I should not marry/I have killed whom I should not kill; now all is clear.” (line 1144-8) When he accepts the truth Oedipus takes the responsibility for his father’s, mother’s, and the god’s action by stabbing himself in the eyes so that he is now unable to see. Oedipus chose to sacrifice himself so that Thebes would be replenished, and rid of the sickness of the plague. This act of complete destruction to Oedipus emotionally, ultimately led to him becoming a prophet, and achieving his peak of

In the play Oedipus the King we identify the classic tragic hero. The character Oedipus Rex plays the role of the tragic hero perfectly. He shows the three main characteristics being talented and of noble birth, possessing a tragic flaw that causes the downfall and pain of everyone, and the recognition of responsibility.

This denial causes him to make decisions that only lead to his downfall and further deterioration. He himself leads to his own downfall through his foolish beliefs. To further, Oedipus makes more destructive decisions when he summons the Sheppard to reveal who the murderer of Laius is. Oedipus says, “I must pursue this trail to the end, till I have unraveled the mystery of my birth” (Sophocles, 113), illustrating his mental deterioration considering that this obsession to deny his position as the murderer is consuming his life. Oedipus forces the Sheppard to tell the ill-fated truth and is told: “I hadn’t the heart to destroy it, master” (Sophocles, 118), demonstrating that Oedipus was the cursed baby who was sent to his death, but as fate had planned, Oedipus lived. Not only did he live, he went on to accomplish each revelation the Oracle declared he would. At the end, once the truth has been revealed, Oedipus reaches his breaking point and cannot bear the truth. His mental deterioration from discovering the truth consequently influences him into literally blinding himself, resulting in his downfall. These examples establish how Oedipus’s internal madness played the role of influencing him into believing he could alter the will of the Oracle. He displayed madness when he continuously denied the truth despite the evidence that went against his beliefs. He was blinded by madness into

This brings the audience to the third and fourth characteristics of Aristotle’s tragic hero: the reversal of fortune and the recognition that it was self-inflicted. In a rush of realization, Oedipus sees the truth that was in front of him and the audience throughout entire play. Oedipus, in utter agony, cries out and starts cursing the shepherd who had freed his ankles as a child. (lines 1481-1487) He then sees the correlation that marks him the killer of King Laius. The most horrifying realization to Oedipus was that he in fact had wed and procreated with his own mother. At this point heroic Oedipus has been

"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.

His more significant flaw, his pride, fuels his quick temper which leads to a greater dilemma for the king. For instance, in the fourth episode as the shepherd from Corinth arrives, Oedipus shows his pride when he takes advantage of the old man. “Look, Elders, if I may play the prophet too, I’d say—although I’ve never met the man—there’s the herdsmen we’ve been searching for,” Oedipus declares pompously. Seconds before the shepherd enters, Oedipus compares himself to a prophet when he tells the elders his opinions about the man approaching. When the old man refuses to tell Oedipus the truth, Oedipus threatens to hurt and even to kill the poor man, demonstrating Oedipus’s hubris fueling his temper. Perhaps the most significant example of his vanity occurs when the messenger from Corinth delivers the news to Jocasta and Oedipus revealing the death of Oedipus’s father. Instead of mourning his father’s death, Oedipus celebrates thinking that he broke the curse and outwitted the gods since his

The audience are fearful when more information comes out about Oedipus and his past as you can not believe that a strong, honest, good man would commit a murder in the first place but to hide that information for years. The audience can feel pity when he finds his wife/mother hanging and gouges his eyes out with her brooches so he can not longer see and enjoy life due to his sins as Oedipus always seemed to be attempting to do the right thing by breaking the plague. Oedipus misstep that changes the direction of the play is speaking to his wife Iokaste and stating that Kreon had murdered Laios and then hearing his wife tell about the death of her husband and the he was killed where "three highways meet" and this jolted a memory in Oedipus of him killing a man at that type of intersection. He then called for the household servant/Shepherd that had witnessed the murder to come to Thebes to speak to him and that is where he learned about his ankles being pierced and how he had given him to the Messanger as an infant and he learned that Polybos was not his father and that he indeed had killed his own father and married his

In the story of Oedipus, Oedipus is considered a “Tragic Hero” because of the tragic fate and effect that he had upon his life. My definition of a tragedy is a great loss that has a unhappy ending to which concluded me to state that Oedipus falls under that category. Throughout the book, Oedipus is leading himself to his own destruction when trying to find the killer of the late King Laios. So when a journal article I found published by The John Hopkins University Press stated that a “tragic hero is a man who fails to attain happiness, and fails in such a way that his career excites, not blame, but fear and pity in the highest degree” ( Barstow, Marjorie.) there was no doubt in my mind that the story Oedipus fell under the category. In my

As the play unravels, Oedipus struggles to resist his impending fate. He does anything he can to find evidence proving that he is not who Tiresias says he is, but after questioning a messenger and a shepard, he finds his answer: Laius and Jocasta had Oedipus and gave him to a messenger who would soon kill him, but instead was adopted by a new family (Sophocles 55). Oedipus’ self-loathing for his new, inescapable reality inhibits the advancement of his previously untroubled life. His flaw of not being able to overcome outside criticism and the truth triggers him to “speak in blindness” (Sophocles 54). Oedipus’ words are empty and lack meaning because of his failed endeavors at proving that he is not who the people say he is. Because of his proven prophecy, the dreadful news causes the “sorrow-stricken woman’s [, Jocasta’s] end” (Sophocles 57). Additionally, Oedipus is prompted to gouge his own “blind and knowing naught” eyes out (Sophocles 63). Oedipus’ efforts to escape his own identity result in his, and many other characters’ ultimate

Oedipus’s tragic flaw being his ignorance, this lack of knowledge he posseses amplifies the cathartic nature of the play. Given that ignorance, of which Oedipus suffers from throughout the duration of the play, is supposedly bliss, the actions that doom the main character are done in unenlightened circumstances yielding to the dramatic irony that the audience experiences. For example, the audience knows who Oedipus’s father is from the

Although he is clever man, he is blind to the truth. Even though he did not know that Laius and Jocasta are his parents, He still kills a man old enough to be his father and marry a woman old enough to be his mother. One would think that a man with a disturbing prophesy over his head as Oedipus should be very careful about whom he marries or kills. The fact that a tragic hero is not perfect evokes both pity and fear. Oedipus although being a good father, husband, and son, he unwillingly destroys his parents, wife and children. Oedipus is human, regardless of his pride, his intelligence or his stubbornness and the audience recognize his humanity in his agonizing reaction to his sin. Watching this, the audience certainly moved to both pity and fear, pity for this broken man and fear that his tragedy can be their own.

In the play Oedipus the King, Oedipus struggles to accept the truth and lets his temper over power him. He can be displayed as a tragic hero. His refusal to accept the truth led to Oedipus’ down fall. A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, “is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction.” Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

The first quality of Oedipus that justifies him as a tragic hero is in his lack of self-knowledge. Oedipus can be seen has someone who is not genuinely satisfied until he or she solves all of his life’s puzzles and the last riddle of his life. Oedipus physical strength gave him a great opportunity to be the king. This physical strength which he possesses and misuses also marked the beginning of his downfall. In the beginning of the play Oedipus has perfect vision; however, he is blind and ignorant of the truth about himself and his past. As a result; he gains too much pride and confidence and starts to believe he is impalpable. He desperately wants to know, to see, but he can’t. His actions must somehow overcome his blindness. Ironically, into the play a prophet was introduced, a seer, Teresias, who is physically blind, but who is clairvoyant. Teresias says to Oedipus, I tell you, no man that walks upon the earth/ shall be rooted out more horribly than you (S1. .1117). This describes Oedipus as a man ignorant to the true appearance of things, this blind man could see the truth about Oedipus, yet Oedipus in all of his physical strength cannot.

views Oedipus as one who " does not unselfishly seek out the truth even though he knows it will be painful

Knox, B. M. (1998). Hero. In Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles' tragic hero and his time (1st ed., p. 4). New Haven, NY: Yale University Press.