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Analysis of oedipus character
Character analysis of oedipus from oedipus rex
Character analysis of oedipus from oedipus rex
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The play “Oedipus Rex” was written by an ancient Greek playwright named Sophocles. Sophocles is known for his compelling tragedies and well-rounded characters. The protagonist of Sophocles’ play “Oedipus Rex” is an honorable man however, chooses to lead a life of arrogance and pride known as hubris. This hubris is what ultimately causes Oedipus to unknowingly cause his own tragic demise. Oedipus fulfills the prerequisites set by Aristotle for a tragic hero. The events that conspire prior to the setting of the play create a perfect incubator for a tragic hero to develop. Through the heat of fate and Oedipus’ hubris, Oedipus transforms from a heroic king to a catastrophic excuse of a man. Oedipus loses everyone he loves because of his hasty judgments and arrogant attitude. The play “Oedipus Rex”, exemplifies Aristotle’s assertion of a tragic hero by King Oedipus’ explicit flaw of arrogance causing his fall from nobility and high estate.
Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero is woven into the plot of “Oedipus Rex”. The criteria for Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero is that a protagonist is “fallible” and of “high estate”, typical a noblemen. (Kennedy and Giola 856) Aristotle’s tragic hero concept has defined the art of tragedies since its conception. Along with Aristotle’s concept, the character Oedipus can be further defined as having “a weakness the Greeks called hubris – extreme pride, leading to overconfidence.” (Kennedy and Giola 857) Oedipus exhibits this personality flaw of hubris throughout the play, and it is the hubris tied with arrogance that causes of his tragic fall from nobility. Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero and the Greeks definition of hubris are essential for a more than superficial understanding of the...
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Works Cited
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Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Giola. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. Boston: Pearson, 2010. Book.
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The great Sophoclean play, Oedipus Rex is an amazing play, and one of the first of its time to accurately portray the common tragic hero. Written in the time of ancient Greece, Sophocles perfected the use of character flaws in Greek drama with Oedipus Rex. Using Oedipus as his tragic hero, Sophocles’ plays forced the audience to experience a catharsis of emotions. Sophocles showed the play-watchers Oedipus’s life in the beginning as a “privileged, exalted [person] who [earned his] high repute and status by…intelligence.” Then, the great playwright reached in and violently pulled out the audience’s most sorrowful emotions, pity and fear, in showing Oedipus’s “crushing fall” from greatness.
Through Oedipus the King Sophocles presents the paradox of a man whose good side causes harm and whose bad side works good. The character of Oedipus itself is one vicious irony, for his virtues devolve into virulent vices that wreak his complete destruction. Though the story he tells is a heartbreaking and predictable tragedy, Sophocles masterfully employs the tools of his craft to fashion a drama that has captured the fascination of untold generations. Perhaps therein lies the ultimate irony: The name of Oedipus will always be cloaked in a pall of darkest ignominy, but that of Sophocles remains forever radiant in brightest glory.
Sophocles. "Oedipus the King." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Twelfth Edition. New York: Pearson, 2013. 1205-1244.
Sophocles. Oedipus Tyrannus. Norton Critical ed. Trans. Luci Berkowitz and Theodore F. Brunner. New York: Norton, 1970.
Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2010). Literature an introduction to fiction, poetry, drama and
Oedipus Rex (the King), written by Sophocles, is the tragic play depicting the disastrous existence to which Oedipus, an Athenian, is 'fated' to endure. With a little help from the gods and the 'fated' actions and decisions of Oedipus, an almost unthinkable misfortune unfolds. Athenian perfection can consist of intelligence, self-confidence, and a strong will. Oedipus, the embodiment of such perfection, and his tragedy are common place to Athenians. Ironically, the very same exact characteristics that bring about the ominous discovery of Oedipus' fate: to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus' 'fated' decisions entangle everyone whom is of any significance to him within a quagmire of spiraling tragedy. Sophocles uses the riddle of the Sphinx as a metaphor for the three phases of Oedipus' entangled life, the three phases of human life, and to describe how every life-changing action or decision can influence other lives.
Works Cited:.. Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1991.
Sophocles. “Oedipus Rex.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Robert DiYanni. 6th Ed. New York, 2007. 1307-1347. Print.
Oedipus is depicted as a “marionette in the hands of a daemonic power”(pg150), but like all tragic hero’s he fights and struggles against fate even when the odds are against him. His most tragic flaw is his morality, as he struggles between the good and the evil of his life. The good is that he was pitied by the Shepard who saved him from death as a baby. The evil is his fate, where he is to kill his father and marry his mother. His hubris or excessive pride and self-righteousness are the lead causes to his downfall. Oedipus is a tragic hero who suffers the consequences of his immoral actions, and must learn from these mistakes. This Aristotelian theory of tragedy exists today, as an example of what happens when men and women that fall from high positions politically and socially.