Oedipus the King

This story is a perfect model for a great tragedy because it emphasizes on human weakness and man’s inability to change his destiny. “Oedipus the King” was introduced by Sophocles in which he introduced the achievements of Oedipus. It takes you on the journey or Oedipus and this tragic things that he goes through. Although Oedipus was a good person and a true hero, he was the unfortunate one to discover that the gods were only playing with him. Oedipus has everything a man of that time could ever want: he has a great wife and children, he becomes the king of Thebes, and has great fame throughout the lands. “The world knows my name; I am Oedipus.”

The Sophocles authored a play about Oedipus Tyrannus, a king, that was admire as a hero and beloved by his people, however, he was filled with tragic prophecies by oracles & Gods that later will question his destiny. He was foreseen to be a strong and intelligent man that loved his kingdom; but soon his life starts to unravel with act of crimes of secrets and intentions. A tale of a tragic hero. Now according to the author, they described the character as a “tragic hero exhibits intransigence, strength of will, stubbornness, harshness, and he is easily angered and opened. Isolated, the hero refuses to compromise, setting his own conditions for existence. Often, death is the only solution. Through the hero’s loyalty to his nature humanity achieves its true greatness." (Sophocles 36). Throughout Oedipus’s case of events it involved sacrifice, loss, and love, that formed acts of heroism.

Oedipus is a nobleman who overflows with pride. Through an Oracle, he finds that he is “doomed to kill his father and marry his mother no matter what he (or his parents) might do to prevent it,” and even father the children of his mother (Solomon, 2003, p. 447). Due to Oedipus’ hamartia, an error in judgment and his flaw of hubris, extreme pride, his kingdom, family, and self will endure great sufferings (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, p. 905).

Doomed to suffer the unrelenting punishment of fate itself, Oedipus struggles to find the root of the disease and sickness in Thebes only to bring himself full-circle in the play Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, the famous playwright. Over his life, Sophocles wrote a large number of tragic plays, and Oedipus Rex is one of the greatest there is. Not only does Oedipus come from high power, fame, and fortune; but is also of good character and seeks to help his people, no matter the cost. Most importantly, after the downfall of Oedipus the audience is moved in both pity and fear, tribute to the Chorus. This definition of a tragic hero by Aristotle fits the storyline and moral of Oedipus Rex like a jigsaw puzzle.

In Oedipus the King, Oedipus can be considered to be the tragic hero of the play. Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero holds that the tragic hero is “a person who is neither perfect in virtue or justice, nor one who will fall into misfortune through vice or depravity, but rather, on who succumbs through some miscalculation” (Brown). Aristotle also believed that the tragic hero’s misfortune or demise was not “wholly deserved” and that the punishment would exceed the crime that he or she committed (“Aristotle”). The tragic hero’s fall was also meant to serve as an allegory and intended to “raise awareness [or] gain self-knowledge” (“Aristotle”). In many cases, the tragic hero’s fall is due to a tragic flaw that serves as a catalyst for his or her demise. In other cases, supernatural forces help to cause the tragic hero to fall (“Tragedy: The Basics”). In the case of Oedipus, it is King Laius that initiates the conflict between himself and Oedipus who retaliates against the king and kills him in self-defense. When Oedipus is told the truth, he cannot understand what has happened, which is a direct result of being lied to about his biological parents. When Oedipus is finally able to piece together the fragmented facts that

Aristotle explains that a tragic character is just and good, but his misfortune is brought about not by wickedness or depravity but by error, pride, or frailty. Oedipus fits this description perfectly. "The story of Oedipus fascinates us because of the spectacle of a man freely choosing, from the highest motives, a series of actions which lead to his ruin." (Dodds 23). Oedipus could leave the city of Thebes and let the plague take its course "but pity for the sufferings of his people compelled him to consult Delphi" (Dodds 23). When Apollo's word comes back, he could leave the murder of Laius uninvestigated, but pride and justice cause him to act. Oedipus cannot let a murder investigation go by without solving the riddle of who killed King Laius because his pride overpowers him. Oedipus' pride reveals itself again in his loyalty to the truth. Oedipus' constant struggle to discover the truth for the sake of his people ruined him most in the end. Even though he is warned many times to stop seeking the truth, he keeps on searching. Oedipus has to choose between his doom and an alternative "which if accepted would betray the hero's own conception of himself, his rights, his duties," but in the end the hero "refused to yield; he remains true to himself, to his physis" (Knox 8). Therefore, one can see Oedipus' need to uncover the truth about Laius and then about himself as proof of his commitment to uphold his own nature, pride. Oedipus' quest for

In the play Oedipus Rex, Sophocles portrays Oedipus who is also the main character, as a good- natured, beautiful, noble yet narcissistic person who has a lapse of judgment and fall from power. Throughout the play Oedipus makes a few profound decisions for which he is condemned to plentiful suffering; thus making Oedipus fit the mold of a tragic hero if we agree with Aristotle that Oedipus ' misfortune happens strictly because of his tragic flaw. Oedipus’ judgment alongside classic narcissistic behavior caused such events as the killing of

The play Oedipus Tyrannus, written by Sophocles, is one of the greatest renowned Greek drama tragedies. Have you ever heard the saying if you do not know your past, then it can come back to haunt you? This theme is played upon heavily though out the story to where it also becomes somewhat about self-discovery along the way. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, based some of his book Poetics on Oedipus. According to Aristotle the definition of a tragic hero is a character that due to the wrongs of their judgment leads them to their own demise. Oedipus’s downfall was brought about by his lack of knowledge, his quick impulsive and angering temperament, and arrogance.

In the greek drama, Oedipus the king by Sophocles, King Oedipus shows all the characteristics of a tragic hero. By definition A tragic hero is, “A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate suffers a fall from glory into suffering”. That definition perfectly describes Oedipus and his life. Throughout this whole story we see the real Oedipus emerge. Oedipus starts out in the beginning by being the best king around but by the end of the story we see the ups and downs of his life and how it changed forever. In the story we here Oedipus say these words, “ah! My poor children, known, ah known too well, the quest that brings

In conclusion, Oedipus’ is excessively proud in himself but that will eventually lead to his downfall that will label him as a tragic hero. Aristotle even claims Oedipus to be the ideal tragic hero in Greek tragedy. Sophocles supports the way that Aristotle defines a tragic hero through the character of Oedipus form his Oedipus the King.

In Sophocles’ Oedipus The King, Oedipus is shown as a confident man of dignified origin who inevitably meets a catastrophic end. Oedipus is a tragic hero because of his strong traits of confidence, as well as, virtuous intentions, his tragic downfall due to on his own flaws, and lastly his self-inflicted severe suffering and punishment. When Oedipus realizes the truth about his past he suffers the harsh reality of his condemned future.

Greek literature is stocked full of characters that possess excessive pride. This is often referred to as hubris. Having too much pride is rarely seen as a good thing, which is demonstrated in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. Oedipus’ land of Thebes falls under a terrible curse, and naturally as a king, he wants to solve it, which is usually the sign of a great ruler, however, Oedipus’ journey to alleviate the plague for his people brings about the realization of his fate. Oedipus is a character deeply flawed because he believes that he is a great ruler for the city of Thebes and that he cannot be the reason why the plague has befallen them, only the one who can solve the problem. Oedipus’ plight in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex illustrates hubris, specifically the realization that having excessive pride is damaging, which is a moral presented to the reader over the course of the play.

The downfall of mankind is an integral part of comprehending human nature. Every tragedy requires a hero with a tragic flaw that most likely, unconsciously leads themselves to their own downfall. The protagonist being human makes the character relatable and even more pitiable because the audience is aware that the protagonist's inevitable undoing is yet to come. The protagonist's tragic flaw not only harms the protagonist but harms others in the story as well. Drama's such as "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles is a prime example of a character with a tragic flaw that leads one's own self to their undoing. In this story, the character's tragic flaw is pride, which leads him to discover the truth behind his past and thus spurring on hopeless attempts to evade his inevitable fate and bringing harm onto himself and others in the drama, illustrating the dramatic irony in the futility of evading fate to the audience and the danger of excessive pride displayed is palpable when he attempts to find Laius’ murderer in turn discovering the truth behind his parentage.

Anyone who believes that they can best fate deserves to be crushed by the overwhelming weight of reality that will come crashing down on them. Ordinarily confidence yields benefit in moderation, however, it proves damaging when used excessively. Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles thousands of years ago as a cautionary tale about hubris. As a king, Oedipus rules over the city of Thebes with an arrogant attitude and believes that he can defy the gods. Through the events of the novella, Oedipus lost everything after uncovering that he killed his father and had children with his mother. Conversely the real downfall of Oedipus came from his pride and failure to handle the situation carefully. Oedipus fills the archetype of tragic hero because suffered from hubris, had some free choice, received pity, and was doomed from the start.

Sophocles introduce one of Oedipus’s hamartia when he is approached by an old prophet that informs him “that he should kill his father and marry his mother” (Oedipus Rex as the Ideal Tragic Hero of Aristotle). Oedipus determined not let the prophecy come true, hurried off in the direction of Thebes, where he could distance himself from who he believed were his parents.This revealed Oedipus’s first tragic flaw (pride) that made him fight against the idea that the gods are in charge of the lives of mortals. Moreover, Oedipus pride pushed him to believe that he could control as well as create his own destiny. The possession of such fatal flaw started Oedipus path towards the realization of the gods’ prophecy. As a matter of fact, his refusal to accept a fate that was set up for him since the day he was born, contributed greatly to his own