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Oedipus Tragic Hero Essay

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Aristotle, a Greek philosopher who studied plays and poems, Defined a tragic hero as a Hero that is doomed from the start because of a flaw that he/she has.Oedipus rex has a down fall and punishment is greater than he deserves,even though he punishes himself in the end. Oedipus’ tragic flaw is his ignorance. Yes, Oedipus in the eyes of the the people was a wise and noble king, but unknown to him and his people he is the reason for the plague and disease in the land.Oedipus Says to the people on line 207 and 208 “ Untill now I was a stranger to this tale,/As I had been a stranger to the crime.” This quote is saying that Oedipus had no idea how king laius,the king before him,was murdered or any details about the story before now. Another quote can be found on lines 333-334 Oedipus is …show more content…

That is what I am going to explain now. On line 700-701 Oedipus is speaking with Jocasta “I think myself may be accursed/ by my own ignorant edict”. At this point Oedipus realizes that he has cursed himself and that he will have to exile himself or put himself to death. Ok now he is looking into it more and finds out for sure that he is the one who killed king Laius. On lines 1207- 1208 the second messenger is explaining what happened to when Oedipus went in to Jocasta room after she had killed herself. “ Cursing the wife who was not his wife,the mother/ whose womb had carried his own children and himself”. Ok so now you're probably thinking how is this Oedipus’ downfall it is just jocasta who is dead not Oedipus. yes Jocasta is dead and this is what leads Oedipus to stab out his own eyes with Jocasta's golden brooches.After this he willingly exile himself and this is what makes him a hero. He is a hero because he could of with the power that he held as king placed the blame on someone else and remained king. But no he took on the punishment that he had put on the head of the

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Oedipus slowly comes to the realization that he killed Laios. However, it is not until later in the story when he figures out that Laios is his father. Oedipus says “Oh never to have come here with my fathers blood upon me!” (Sophocles 73) This is when Oedipus realizes that the prophecies are true.

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