tragoed Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex) as Ideal Tragic Hero

Since Oedipus is king and has had a pleasing life, his basic understanding of justice is limited, to say the least. Apart from escaping his former kingdom, Rex’s life has been tremendously serene. Therefore, Oedipus finds himself in

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.

Considered one of the greatest dramas of all time, Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King follows the tragic life of Oedipus, king of Thebes. Considered a Satyr play, the Oedipus trilogy is perhaps the most famous of Sophocles’ plays. Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy that was first performed somewhere around 429 BC in Athens, Greece. Originally, the Greeks referred to the play as simply “Oedipus,” as that was what Aristotle referred to it as in the Poetics. Perhaps what makes this play so memorable, is Sophocles’ uses of the tragic hero as the main theme. Sophocles uses characterization and conflict to portray Oedipus as an Aristotelian tragic hero.

“The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves”, quote by Sophocles. Sophocles is a ancient Greek writer who created multiple plays including the tragic and heartbreaking play called Oedipus the King. Oedipus the King is a tragedy about a young king, Oedipus, who tries to help his land from disease by finding the murderer of the former king. But by solving this mystery Oedipus unravels a tragic truth about his family and fate. Over past years, they’ve been controversy of whether Oedipus is known as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is someone who makes a mistake or error that eventually leads to someone's downfall. Although there are many ways supporting Oedipus as not a tragic hero, there are multiple characteristics that define Oedipus as a

In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.

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 poet Arthur Rimbaud once said, “By being too sensitive, I have wasted my life,” and yet his poetry, rife with both ecstasy and melancholy, have come to be some of the most remarkable of the Romantic movement and literature as a whole. In Oedipus Rex, there is a similar beauty in the juxtaposition of both “pleasure and disquietude” resulting from Oedipus’s fall from grace and the dramatic irony therein, and his own subsequent realization of it, which provides catharsis. Oedipus’s fall from grace is already largely known at the beginning of the play by its audience, as it was a key Greek myth and even later came to be immortalized in the Freudian Oedipus complex, and it serves to give both a sense of pleasure and anxiety to the audience. For example, Oedipus’s almost godly presence in Thebes at the beginning of the play, as shown through the people’s offerings and prayer-like pleads gives an initial sense of pleasure due to his wisdom and paternal care toward them, as contrasted with Creon, who does not

Sophocles's Oedipus Rex is probably the most famous tragedy ever written. Sophocles's tragedy represents a monumental theatrical and interpretative challenge. Oedipus Rex is the story of a King of Thebes upon whom a hereditary curse is placed and who therefore has to suffer the tragic consequences of fate (tragic flaws or hamartia). In the play, Oedipus is the tragic hero. Even though fate victimizes Oedipus, he is a tragic figure since his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his fidelity to the truth ruin him.

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 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 ancient Greek’s culture was greatly influenced by their belief in many gods. They believed that the gods would guide them and that everyone was destined to live out their fates. In the case of Oedipus Rex, fate drove him into a downfall. Oedipus Rex is a part of the great Sophoclean play, written by Sophocles. Sophocles wrote this story to exemplify a tragic hero, he uses specific character flaws to explain the downfall of his hero. Oedipus is a perfect tragic hero because his early life forces the audience to admire as a privilege young man and also pity him as he falls into a crushing downfall towards the end. Oedipus’s tragic flaws are pride, persistence, and ignorance. They lead to his fate and help him fulfil his destiny.

The play “Oedipus Rex” recounts about the King of Thebes who was destined by prophecy to murder his father and wed his mother. Regardless of his attempts to evade his fate, he inadvertently fulfills it, which unavoidably led to his demise. Prior to the start of the play, the reader learns Oedipus ascended to the throne of Thebes after unraveling the enigma of the Sphinx. While under the jurisdiction of Oedipus, the Theban city was struck with a plague, respectively due to the death of the former king. Oedipus is considered a tragic hero because he meets all five criteria designed by Aristotle: the hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis, hubris, and acquiring a fate that is greater than deserved.

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.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is a story about a boy who was left by his own parents in the mountains, by himself, to die because of a prophecy that were given to his parents by the Oracle of Delphi. A shepherd found this young child and decided to bring him to King Polybus and Queen Merope, who can’t have a child of their own. The couple decided to adopt the child and name him Oedipus, which means swollen ankles because of the way the shepherd found him with his ankles pierced with pins. When Oedipus grew up, he saved the town from a beast which made Oedipus be considered a hero of his town. Oedipus is considered an epic hero, but also a tragic hero. An epic hero is someone who is applauded for his bravery against the beast. A tragic hero is someone who does good for its town, but does not always do the right thing which leads to their own ruin. Oedipus is a tragic hero because he has a fatal prophecy that he could not bypass.

In his Poetics, Aristotle defined the term 'tragedy' as 'a man not preeminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon him not by vice or depravity, but by some error in judgement' the change in the hero's fortune must not be from misery to happiness, but on the contrary, from happiness to misery'. From this definition, he further expanded it by defining the profile of the Classical Greek tragic hero, basing it on what he considered the best tragedy ever written, Sophocle's Oedipus Rex. He felt that a tragedy should comprise of the hero's goodness and superiority, a tragic flaw in which the hero makes fatal errors in judgement which eventually lead to his