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Oedipus Rex Research Paper

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“Oh my children, the new blood of ancient Thebes, why are you here?” (p.2). Only a person of high esteem would call others “children,” and yet Oedipus does. People like Oedipus in our society nowadays might face a similar fate, a long fall to the very bottom. Oedipus, a character in Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, flees Corinth from an early age, and tumbles his way to Thebes, unknowingly killing his father. After solving a riddle, he is proclaimed king and marries the queen, his mother. He only fled Corinth to keep the prophecies incomplete, yet he still fulfilled them. Throughout the play Oedipus feels all-powerful, yet falls. However, would he be considered a tragic hero by Aristotle? Yes. Oedipus is a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s characteristics because Oedipus is an important person, a ruler; he brought doom upon himself through an error of judgment, and because he accepts responsibility for the catastrophe. Oedipus is a ruler, a leader, which is one of Aristotle’s characteristics of a tragic hero. This is proved when the Priest says “King Oedipus, the sovereign of our land” (p.5). Since Oedipus is a king, that means he is a ruler, so he fulfills one of Aristotle’s characteristics of a tragic hero. Also, before Oedipus became King of Thebes, he was “brought up by a king and queen” (p.3). This …show more content…

He accepts responsibility, as told by the Palace Official: “so did his [Oedipus’] hands, to strike his founts of sight, not once but many times” (p.70). Oedipus knew he had done something wrong, and knew it was his fault, so he blinded himself. If he thought it wasn’t his fault, or didn’t accept responsibility, he wouldn’t have hurt himself because people don’t just hurt themselves without reason. But, since he has a reason (his wrongdoing), and accepts responsibility, he scratches his eyes out. This is yet another reason Oedipus is a tragic

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(1077-1086). Oedipus is so prideful because he grew up as a Prince, more evidence that it is your circumstances that decide your outcomes

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Oedipus as a king has hubris or excessive pride and sees himself as having superiority over all others. “I thought it wrong, my children, to hear the truth from others, messengers. Here I am myself—you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus” (Lines 1-6). This sets up the view that exactly from the beginning of the story, Oedipus is worshipped as this highly renowned king. This sets up the dramatic irony that even though Oedipus is praised, the people reciting the story are the ones who along with Oedipus will discover the truth about his life.

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Oedipus is then taken away by a shepherd, but he is not left in the woods to wither away, but instead passed down to a family in need of a child. As

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Oedipus was brought to be king from the people of Thebes’ unanimous decision after solving the Sphynx’s riddle, and was seen to be instantly highly regarded. Oedipus was brought into Thebes and instantly got married, to at the time he didn’t know was his real mother because he had adopted parents who thought were his birth parents, which eventually lead to Jocasta dead and Oedipus blind, banished, and struck down like lightning. This ends up being very tragic, by Thebes having Creon as a king, and Jocasta and Oedipus’ children without parents, both of the dying from their reaction of finding out their true relationship. Tragedy is truly shown from this being that it affects not only Jocasta and Oedipus, but the whole kingdom of Thebes with no one to rule but Creon, who wasn’t a very good king, even though Oedipus left his sons to rule, unfortunately they weren’t at the preferred age to rule their

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The significant archetypal elements that make up the exciting plot that is Oedipus are the tragic hero, anagnorisis, and hubris. Oedipus is a tragic hero because he starts off as a loved and admired king who later finds that he has killed his father and is married to his mother! Oedipus is blinded by his pride, or hubris, when he doesn’t accept the truth that he has committed a sin and accuses his close friends and family of it. Anagnorisis is when the character realizes that he has made a mistake and that is too late to fix things.

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Thesis:In Sophocles play ‘Oedipus the king’,Oedipus is an example of a tragic hero because he changed from a hero at the beginning of the play into a tragic hero by the end by experiencing power,tragic flow,downfall and death. Oedipus changes into a person no can believe of,because in the beginning he was a hero for the city of thebes by solving a riddle to defeat the monster that was killing and taking over thebes. Claim:Before the play Oedipus defeats sphinx and becomes a powerful king,At the beginning of the play people rely on Oedipus’s power and help. Data:For example the priest says “Oedipus greatest in all men’s eyes We pray,find some strength again and rescue or city”. Warrant:From this quote readers can see that how empowered oedipus feels like and how people in thebes rely on him,Clearly this scene represents the power stage of the tragic hero.

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In every tragic story the protagonist come to terms with a sad truth or faces a tragic event. Even in despite of there best efforts to be a good person; they meet a sad ending making him or her a tragic hero. Oedipus was a great King, who eventually had to face a tragic fate that he could not escape. He came to find out he was the evil he was chasing, which lead him to his tragic end.

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In The Identity of Oedipus the King, Alister Cameron proved Oedipus as a tragic hero. He specifically wrote, “[f]or whatever his faults, Oedipus is noble. And after all, the acts he performs he is condemned to perform in ignorance. Therefore, whenever he acts, necessarily he acts blindly. Blindness is given him in his situation” (Cameron 140).

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Oedipus was a tragic hero he was seen as a great man and was king,but he fell to misfortune because of his disability to see past his pride and anger which led to his demise. By not being able to see past his pride and anger Oedipus was not able to to avoid his prophetic destiny. He was blinded by his pride and anger so much that it became his tragic flaw ultimately leading him to his

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Apart from his royal birth to Laius and Jocasta Oedipus also had the privilege of being raised by Polypus and Merope; both high class individual’s in the kingdom of Corinth. The noble stature of his birth is very important as it gives us our first indication that Oedipus is indeed a tragic hero, “The tragic hero is a man of noble stature” (Britt). Even though this is unannounced to Oedipus, it still qualifies him as the noble hero, and in fact is a critical building point in the plot of this play. The evolution of Oedipus’ flaw eventually manifests in his self-destruction upon learning he had murdered his father and slept with his mother. Had Oedipus been born of any other persons, and not been a noble, the chain of events would have had a much different result.

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Defined by Aristotle a tragic hero is a human being who is of high stature or who is respected in his community. They must portray positive personality traits, but also must possess a major character flaw, which will bring upon the downfall of the hero. By Aristotle’s definition Oedipus displays all these traits making him a tragic hero. Oedipus is the king of Thebes making him a person of high stature.

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So in the end, Oedipus no longer thinks of himself. Thinking of his children 's impending marriage, Oedipus begs for his children and no longer can think of himself as anything more than a creature that embodies what it means to be pathetic: “When you come to the age ripe for marriage, who will he be who will run the risk, children, to take for himself the reproaches that will be banes for my parents and offspring alike? What evil is absent? Your father slew his father; he ploughed his mother, where he himself was sown, and he sired you in the same fount where he himself was sired.

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Through such characterization, Sophocles heightens the emotions in the play by demonstrating how these traits contribute to the catastrophic conclusion. Sophocles deliberately depicts Oedipus as a seemingly infallible yet prideful ruler in order to augment the subsequent devastation Oedipus causes, thus realizing the vision of an Aristotelian tragedy. Aristotle identifies nobleness in character as a characteristic of a tragic hero. Oedipus personifies this criterion; he is revered as one of the most adept rulers in all of Greece. Indeed, he constantly reminds himself that “I am a king . . .

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