Sophocles’ Oedipus is arguably one of the best tragic heroes in ancient literature, but does he conform to the Aristotelian criteria of tragic heroes? In his work Poetics, Aristotle details the characteristics that must comprise such a character, providing playwrights a strict criterion to follow when writing dramas. One character that is consistently mentioned along with this definition is the notorious Oedipus. Oedipus was the king of Thebes who slowly learned that he was responsible for the death of his father and was married to his own mother. This brief analysis of the text will attempt to argue that Oedipus does indeed meet his standards, specifically through his great flaw, change of fortune, code of ethics and the dramatic irony that …show more content…
He spends time and effort trying to find the culprit, who just so happens to be the investigator. In the end, Oedipus begs for the punishment that the killer should receive, exile. This kind of backwards plot twist keeps the onlooker interested and is a pleasant deviation from normal storylines. Irony also finds its place in the inescapable truthfulness of the prophecies. It would seem as if nothing that Oedipus could do would circumvent the predicted outcomes. As mentioned earlier, when Oedipus was presented with the information that he, as a matter of fact, murdered King Laius, he wouldn’t accept it. The reader (or spectator) also reaches the final conclusion before the main character. Oedipus, as we know, slowly realizes what took place on his journey to Thebes. In spite of the fact that the entire situation isn’t necessarily humorous, it is quite amusing and almost foolish that it takes him so long to understand the …show more content…
In the event that the evidence provided above isn’t enough, a few academics that have the authority to rule on such matters have come to the same conclusion. Bernard Knox, a former Yale professor and director of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, states in a matter of fact way that Aristotle “clearly regarded” Oedipus “as the most perfect example of the tragic art.” (Knox, 1962, p. 1) The fact that he thought of Sophocles’ work as embodying tragedy to perfection would certainly mean that he executed the persona flawlessly. Even more evident of the conformance to Aristotle’s model is the fact that Sophocles actually held a foundation on the concept that was derivative of the former. (Adade-Yeboah, 2015) If anyone is qualified to classify Oedipus, it is certainly his creator. Furthermore, the Aristotelian tragic hero basically adheres to four basic principles. First, he has a tragic flaw, which could be taken to mean an event that went awry or a fundamental lapse in character. He also passes through a turn of events that leaves him in a worse position that he started. Next, he is morally relatable, landing on neither pole of ethics. Finally, his tale is filled with irony. By conforming to the aforementioned rules, Oedipus is undoubtedly a tragic hero in Aristotle’s
Oedipus Rex a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles in the early days of antiquity is based upon an even more ancient story in Greek mythology. Sophocles, however, knowing that his audience is aware of the outcome of the play utilizes that foreknowledge to create various situations in which dramatic and verbal irony play key roles.
Oedipus is a tragic hero being that he was a king who had a high position in his community to a person who wished to be released from the city forever. Oedipus says " Cast me out as quickly as you can, away from Thebes, to a place where no one, no living human being, will cross my path" (Sophocles ll. 1697-1699). Oedipus was once a person who citizens looked to for answers to problems, and a person who had control over a whole city. To a person who wished to be banished from a new king of Thebes. The use of tragic hero in the story shows a slow slope of not only his position as king, but a man who loses his family and gains information about his real identity. Sending him to his
In the play "Oedipus," irony is used frequently as and as eloquently by Sophocles to the reveal theme of seeking knowledge. Not knowing the King of Thebes, Oedipus, gives speeches on finding the murderer of the King of Laias and how wretched the poor soil will be when the truth is revealed. " Then once more I must bring what is dark to light…, whoever killed King Laios might- who knows?-might decide at any moment to kill me as well. By avenging the murder of the King, I protect myself, (Sophocles 1109). The speech shows how dedicated Oedipus in the pursuit of the murderer and not only the avenge of the King but to save himself. He will not be saving but adding down to his life. Oedipus doesn't realize he is in pursuit of himself. He continues his speech "Moreover: If anyone knows the murderer to be foreign, Let him not keep silent: he shall have his reward from him," ( 1112). With his own words he asks for the truth. But he can't handle the truth, for he has no idea what he is asking for or for whom he is searching for. He also states that he wants t...
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.
His pride gets him into a lot of bad situations. The ultimate downfall of Oedipus is that he is unwilling to accept is fate. This drives him throughout the whole story to get down to the bottom of numerous questions. Such as, who killed his father? What is his fate and how can he avoid it? Also he was questioning the loyalty of his brother-in-law, Creon. Oedipus is genuinely concerned by the damage the plague is doing to his people and seeks to help. Creon informs him that the plague is the result of King Laius's murder and that the murderer must be found and killed or expelled. Oedipus seeks counsel from Teiresias the prophet. However, the prophet is afraid of divulging the truth about the situation. Reason being is because the prophet knows that Oedipus is guilty of killing his father. However, even though Oedipus has done many things that are frowned upon, the reader has to
There is overwhelming evidence corroborating the notion that the perplexity as well as bewilderment underlying man’s destiny along with his deeds is what may qualify Sophocles “Oedipus” as a real human tragedy in the sense that the whole story is about mysterious and enigmatic inquiries about truth as well as human tragedy.
Through Aristotle’s specific definition of a tragic hero, it can be concluded that Oedipus is a tragic hero. Oedipus The King was written by a well-known tragic dramatist named Sophocles. This story is considered to be one of the greatest tragedies of all time. In fact, the Marjorie Barstow of the Classical Weekly says that it “fulfills the function of a tragedy, and arouses fear and pity in the highest degree” (Barstow). It is also very controversial because of the relationship that Oedipus has with his mother, although it was unknown at the time that they were related. The qualifications of a tragic hero, according to Aristotle, include coming from a royal family and falling from power due to actions that only the protagonist can take responsibility for. The main character must also have a tragic flaw, which is defined as a “weakness in character” (Gioia). There have been many protagonists in other plays that represent a tragic hero, but none exemplify Aristotle’s tragic hero traits quite as well as Oedipus does because of many reasons including his royal history, his tragic flaw, his hamartia, and his his fall from power.
In the play "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, the author presents us with several instances of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. Dramatic irony plays an important part in "Oedipus the King", because it is used to describe Oedipus' character as arrogant and blind toward the truth. The audience is expected to understand Oedipus' history well before he does. In the first three episodes, Oedipus uses a lot of dramatic irony in his speeches.
He avoids taking responsibility for the murder of Laius because he fears that he has lost to fate and so he diverts the blame of the murder on others. Oedipus protests his fate since he originally learned of it. Because Oedipus experiences a terrible change in fortune, he undergoes a transfiguration and evokes a sense of pity and fear from the audience and his countryman. Oedipus is cursed by a terrible change in fortune when he goes from believing that his “father’s death has lightened up the scene” (52) to realizing that Polybus is not his father and, in reality, he has killed his father and then that he has had children with his mother.
The tragic hero is a person of greatness, and noble stature who usually contributes to their own downfall. Oedipus has greatness and noble stature; he’s sublime, in the way that he cares for his people. What leads to his own downfall is his own pride, which came out when he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and was praised by marrying the queen of Thebes, making him feel untouchable, “Here I am myself- you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus. (7-9)” His almightiness caused him to feel obligation into saving his city, causing his rejection of reality, thus causing mistakes throughout the play. The prestige he has causes him to find the killer himself, because no other man other than himself can fix this problem causing a quarrel with Creon and Tiresias. Instead of helping, he ruins himself by cursing the killer, which is his own self saying,” I’ll rid us of this corruption. Whoever killed the king may decide to kill me too,” (157-158). Also he denies what Tiresias is telling him, which is the truth, but Oedipus insults him by calling his prophecies “riddles, murk and darkness. (500)” “Here I am myself- you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus. (7-9)” .By being in denial he ignores why he left Polybus and ignores Jocasta’s warning that “if you love your own life, call off this search!” (164), but with the greatness he has, he feels that no knowledge can be kept away from him. “Steals against me… so hungry to overthrone me. (439)” out this situation of against his own friend thinking that Creon was pl...
This essay seeks to explore the life of the flawed mythological person, Oedipus, as protagonist of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.
As a tragedy Oedipus the King spends the majority of the play discovering who he is, without knowing exactly what is occurring. The tragedy was that he suffered the improbabilities of murdering his father and then marrying his mother, it is a tail of his revelations about his past, and the events that led him to his ultimate fall. In this play, Sophocles illustrated a world of human frailty, pride, and punishment, which helped to propel, with dreadful inevitability, a protagonist moving toward catastrophe. Oedipus is the direct cause of his own undoing, however it is not because he is evil, proud, or weak, but simply because he does not know his true past or who he is. The facts that he believes to be true are unraveled, thus revealing his fate. Oedipus meets the first criterion of a Greek tragedy, which is that the protagonist is a good person. Oedipus has both a good he...
In fact, every feature in the definition of the tragic hero can be applied to the character of Oedipus. First, he is a good man. He made a virtuous service to Thebes and save the city by solving the riddle of Sphinx. In addition, he is good king and he can feel the suffering of his people because of the plague. He tells them "each one of you is enclosed to himself" he tells them that his suffering is greater than ...
Oedipus is self-confident, intelligent and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his demise. Sophocles makes liberal use of irony throughout “Oedipus the King”. He creates various situations in which dramatic and verbal irony play key roles in the downfall of Oedipus. Dramatic irony depends on the audience’s knowing something that the character does not and verbal irony is presented when there is a contradiction between what a character says and what they mean. Both of these elements are used effectively to develop the tale of Oedipus.
Oedipus the King by Sophocles has the ingredients necessary for a good Aristotelian tragedy. The play has the essential parts that form the plot, consisting of the peripeteia, anagnorisis and a catastrophe; which are all necessary for a good tragedy according to the Aristotelian notion. Oedipus is the perfect tragic protagonist, for his happiness changes to misery due to hamartia (an error). Oedipus also evokes both pity and fear in its audience, causing the audience to experience catharsis or a purging of emotion, which is the true test for any tragedy according to Aristotle.