The Tragic Heroes Of Hamlet And Oedipus

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.

"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.

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

There are two excellent tragedies in world literature, Hamlet and Oedipus the King. Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles and Hamlet was one of the famous dramas of Shakespeare. There were some similarities and several differences between the two tragedies. Although the plays were both set in different time periods, they had similar themes about fate and free will. Their plots were also analogous. However, the two main character had a major vital difference that Hamlet is a tragedy of inaction and Oedipus is a tragedy of action.

Oedipus from the drama, “Oedipus the King” and Hamlet from, “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” are two characters that are different, yet they both share the same title of being a tragic hero. Oedipus and Hamlet have many characteristics of a tragic hero that separates them in varieties. However, some of those characteristics show that both characters have and use similar thought processes and methods, which classify them as tragic heroes of their dramas. The five characteristics of a tragic hero are: nobility, tragic flaw, peripeteia, anagnorisis, and lastly irony. Both Oedipus and Hamlet hold or have a nobility position in their drama’s plot. Oedipus is the son of the king, and fate has foretold that he will kill his father and take over the

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Hamlet is the prince of denmark, his father was poisoned by his uncle, Claudius. Hamlet slowly starts to become mad or seems to become mad, when his father, in ghost form, appears and Hamlet takes this as his father wants revenge. Hamlet then decides to put on a play in front of the king and the people that reenacted his father's death to see if Claudius would act to it. The play commences and comes to the death scene of the king, and claudius acts to it, proving to hamlet that Claudius did kill King hamlet.

A tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle, is a man who is great but also terribly flawed, who experiences misfortunes while still remaining admirable to the audience at the end of the play. One of Aristotle’s favorite works, Oedipus the King, a play by Sophocles, is a play that above all others, defines the meaning of what a true tragic hero really is. In the play, Oedipus the King, the story unfolds after Oedipus unintentionally kills his own father and goes on to marry his mother. The events of the play are tragic, but it is the way that Oedipus handles the tragedies that make him a tragic hero.

The tragic flaw of a human being is usually checked with the method he or she reacts with to the circumstances that life throws upon him or her. Contemporary society appears to be fixated on giving gatherings of people cases of such individuals who, in spite of the affliction of their lives, that still transcend. In fact, maybe nobody is more fit for indicating triumph over struggles than Sophocles and William Shakespeare. In both Oedipus and Hamlet, for example, the primary characters struggle with many obstacles and consequences and find themselves with unimaginable problems furthermore and are compelling to choose what the correct decision will be. This develops to Oedipus and Hamlet becoming motivated, courageous people and also becoming dishonest to themselves throughout the two books. Shakespeare and Sophocles’ plays show that sometimes when dealing with consequences and the obstacles there are different ways to react instead of leading to a tragedy. Oedipus and Hamlet’s motivation in dealing with problems is evident when the two primary characters want to find out the murderers of their father’s. Their courageous actions develop them towards having one goal, which was to kill the former King, and show courageous traits towards other people. They become dishonest to their themselves and is showed throughout the two books, which then causes misfortune for both of them in the end. Despite the resemblances of the two, Hamlet is in control of his activities, and he very

The Webster dictionary defines tragedy as, “a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror.” (Webster Dictionary) So a tragic hero is a character who goes through a conflict and suffers catastrophically as a direct result of his choices. You will see throughout this story that the character Hamlet is a clear example of Shakespeare’s tragic hero.

Occasionally in literature all of the hardships and pain that tortures a character is actually unknowingly brought onto them by their own actions. In Hamlet(1603), Shakespeare creates Hamlet with a very cautious personality causing him to continuously ponder his next move rather than taking the next step to actually act. After discovering that his father was killed by Claudius, his uncle, Hamlet knows that he must then kill Claudius in order to avenge his father but keeps on making excuses to delay the killing. This delaying leads to so much pain and death of characters that could have quite easily been avoided. In contrast, in Oedipus the King(430 B.C.) Sophocles tells the story of a hero that was cursed with a terrible fate right from the point of his birth. It was prophesied that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother, so his father ordered him to be killed but he lived and then everyone went on trying to stop the prophecy from coming true but that just ended up causing it to happen. In both books the main characters did a play a role in their own demise but were not the sole cause of it. However, whereas Shakespeare displays the nature of Hamlet causing the

As defined by Aristotle, A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction. In the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, Prince Hamlet is the tragic hero. Prince Hamlet can even be considered a quintessential tragic hero due to how closely he relates to Aristotle’s definition. Initially he has noble motives which were to avenge his father’s death but by the end, his flaws and bad decisions lead him to his death. The fact that Prince Hamlet’s best trait is also his downfall makes him one of the most tragic heroes in Shakespeare’s work. In these ways and more, Prince Hamlet fulfills Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

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.

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.