Oedipus Tragic Flaw

According to Aristotle, heroes exhibit certain characteristics to be considered as tragic. The hero must possess a tragic flaw that leads him to his downfall. Another prerequisite is the reversal of fate which is occurs because of the hero’s tragic flaw. The discovery of the reversal arises because of the realization of the hero’s actions. The amalgamation of tragic elements in Oedipus Rex delineates Oedipus as the archetypal Aristotelian tragic hero.

Oedipus’s tragic flaw can be attributed to his desire for the truth. Tiresias’s refusal to give Oedipus answers, indicates how “dreadful knowledge of the truth can be// When there is no help in truth” proclaiming that his divination would not help Oedipus reach his anagnorisis (1315, l.101-102) . Regardless, Oedipus coerces Tiresias further which leads to a fruitless conversation until Oedipus jumps to conspiracy. The shift in attention conveys hamartia, an archery term used to express the missing of the mark despite aiming for the bullseye. Oedipus aims for the truth but becomes blinded by his steadfastness, missing the mark by letting his emotions get the best of him. The interaction between Jocasta and Oedipus, leading up to the final twist into

Already a man of noble birth in a position of authority, Oedipus questions the integrity of his identity. At the revelation of the shepherd, Oedipus recounts his fate as “Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his marriage damned,//Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand” which seals Oedipus’s downfall (1337, l. 72-73). Upon the realization of the disarray in Oedipus’s life, the tragic hero falls. At the present moment of the search for the murderer, Oedipus has already killed his father, married his mother, and sired his own siblings. The true tragedy of Oedipus concerns the effect of learning that fate when the fate is already