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Character analysis of the character oedipus
Analysis of the characters of the tragedy oedipus the king
Analysis of the characters of the tragedy oedipus the king
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Many Greek tragedies include a central character known as "the tragic hero." In the play, Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, the character Oedipus, portrays to the reader the necessary, central, tragic hero. According to Aristotle, "a tragic hero has a supreme pride" (Jones. Pg. 133). That pride is a reflection of arrogance and conceit that suggests superiority to man and equality with the gods. Students of religion are often taught that "pride Goethe before the fall." In Oedipus' situation, his pride, coupled with religious fervor and other human emotions like guilt, lead to what can only be described as a downfall of enormous and costly proportions, in other words, his fate.
The dictionary characterizes a downfall as, "a sudden fall (as from high rank)." The first few lines of the play show the reader that one reason for Oedipus' "sudden fall" stem from two serious flaws, conceit and pride. Oedipus' conceit and pride is apparent when he says to the priest, "Here I am myself--you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus" (Glencoe Literature. Pg. 264. Lines 7-9). The bragging nature in which Oedipus says, "you all know me," shows to the reader that Oedipus has a self-centered attitude toward life and towards others. This attitude stems from the fact that he and he alone solved the riddle of the evil sphinx, saving the city and the people of Thebes, and granting him kingship over the lands. Unfortunately for Oedipus, conceit and pride are only half his problem, the other half stems from Greek religion, and that means "the Greek gods," Zeus and Apollo. Once again, trouble reigns in the city of Thebes. The city's trouble and the gods' religious stronghold, lead Oedipus in a direction that can only be describe...
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...wer, choice, and fate; the four driving forces behind the character of Oedipus, and it is in those forces that Oedipus can assign the blame for his misfortune. "A Greek Tragedy shows how great men and women, although they may have fine ideals, sometimes end in failure and misery" (Schoenheim. The New Book of Knowledge. Pg. 351. Lines 35-38).
Works Cited
Hogan, James. A Commentary on the Plays of Sophocles. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009.
Jones, John. On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Schoenheim, Ursula. "Greek Language and Literature." The New Book of Knowledge. Canada: Grolier Publishing Inc, 2002. Page 351
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." Glencoe Literature: The Readers Choice, World Literature. Ed. Chin, Beverly Ann, et al. Columbus, OH: Glencoe, 2002. Pages 263-322.
Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.
Sophocles: A collection of critical essays edited by Thomas Woodward: Oedipus at Colonus. Whitman, Cedric H. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1966.
Sophocles. Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra. Trans. H. D. F. Kitto. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.
Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed.Eds. Sylvan Barnet, et al. New York: Longman, 1997.
Fitts, Dudley, and Robert Fitzerald. Sophocles: The Oedipus Cycle. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace & Com, 1977. Print.
The ancient Greeks were fond believers of Fate. Fate, defined according to Webster’s, is “the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as the do.” The Greeks take on Fate was slightly modified. They believed that the gods determined Fate: “…fate, to which in a mysterious way the gods themselves were subject, was an impersonal force decreeing ultimate things only, and unconcerned with day by day affairs.” It was thought that these gods worked in subtle ways; this accounts for character flaws (called harmatia in Greek). Ancient Greeks thought the gods would alter a person’s character, in order for that person to suffer (or gain from) the appropriate outcome. Such was the case in Oedipus’s story.
Boston: Pearson, 2013. 1396-1506. Print. The. Sophocles. “Oedipus the King” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. By Michael Meyer. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 1125-166. Print.
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "Critical Casework: Sophocles." Literature: Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. 7th ed. N.p.: Pearson Longman., n.d. 949-86. Print.
In today's society we let our lives be led by a certain force that we believe in very strongly. Yet, a common debate that still rages today is whether we, as a species, have free will or if some divine source, some call it fate, controls our destiny. In the play, Oedipus the King, that special force is also used and is known and defined as fate. This played an important role in the lives of the characters just as it plays one in our daily lives.
The underlying theme in Oedipus Rex is that fate is more powerful than free will. On this strong basis of fate, free will doesn't even exist. This was a popular belief among the ancient Greeks. Fate may be accepted or denied by modern society, but in Oedipus's story, fate proves inevitable. In the play, Oedipus Rex, the characters Oedipus, Iocaste and Laios try to change fate.
Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." An Introduction to Literature, 11th ed.Eds. Sylvan Barnet, et al. New York: Longman, 1997.
In Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex", fate truly is a huge factor in many scenes and events. According to ancient Greek belief, the word of God was fate, and fate was the word of God. Therefore, every event that ever happened was predetermined and unchangeable. Oedipus himself has been completely victimized by fate. In the beginning of the play, he was "fated" to kill his father and marry his own mother and conceive children with her. Since it was the word of Apollo, the god, to the Greeks it meant that it was unchangeable. Oedipus escaped Corinth, the supposed city of his birth, and ran far away. He happened upon an old man in the crossroads-a fated event. Though he did not know it at the time, when he killed the man, it turned out to be his own father-a prophecy he was destined by fate to fulfill (Elsom, 85).
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King" Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed. Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. 1365- 1433
The concept of tragic hero is very important in the construction of tragedy. It is the main cause of pity and fear. The tragic hero is a character between the two extremes; he is neither virtuous nor evil. At the same time, this character is better than the ordinary men or audience, he has some good qualities. Moreover, as a tragic hero, he is moving from happiness to misery by his downfall at the end. In fact, this downfall is caused by an error or a flaw in his character not by a vice or depravity. Another feature in the tragic hero is that he has good reputation and he is a man of prosperity. It can be said that Oedipus is a tragic hero because he has all the previous mentioned characteristics and the whole play is a classical application of this concept.