Oedipus the King: A Tragic Hero

Tragedies have been written, told, and acted out for a number of years. Aristotle defined in his book, Poetics that a tragedy is to arouse the emotions of pity, fear, and finally a catharsis, or purging of emotions. A tragic play that perfectly completes this cycle of emotions is Oedipus the King by Sophocles. This play follows a king of the town of Thebes through his journey of the emotions of pity, fear, and finally a catharsis. It is a tale of a man who unknowingly kills his father and fathers the children of his mother as well. The audience is pulled into the play and experiences the plot along with Oedipus.

The emotion of pity enters the play right from the beginning. First, it is Oedipus who feels pity for his people and their plight. The city of Thebes is experiencing a terrible plague and Oedipus is, "filled with pity..." (4).Little does he know that he is actually the cause of his peoples awful plight. The audience then feels pity for this man, a man much like themselves. Oedipus is a very noble man with many virtuous qualities, yet there is a flaw to his character. Oedipus can be described as intelligent, responsible, energetic, vigorous, and courageous. His major downfall is his refusal to listen to the gods regarding his destiny; therefore he is not a perfect man. This makes the character of Oedipus just like everyone else, and places him on common ground with everyone. As Oedipus begins to dig further into the death of the former king of Thebes, Laius, he slowly reveals what he had been running away from his entire life. When he learns of the cause of Laius' death the king curses the man who did such a horrible thing to this city's beloved former leader, as well as himself. He has not a clue that he has just actua...

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...d is ill fate. He demanded that his children be taken care of. ."..-take care of them for me." (103). He also accepted the curse that he had demanded. "You must send me into exile-away from Thebes." (106).

Pity, fear, and finally catharsis, an effective journey of emotions used to evoke the audience. This play was written to prove a point and really bring the subject of a lost religion home to the ancient Greeks. It shows that man's confidence in his abilities and in himself is at best an illusion if one abandons the gods and their will. The audience walks away from the tragedy, learning from Oedipus' dilemma. Sophocles' hope was to leave the people with some thoughts and hopefully with a desire to change. He saw a need in the land for it to return to its religious roots and felt that if they returned, the gods would perhaps not be so displeased with the country.