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Explained by Aristotle, the characteristics of a good tragic hero must be “better than we are,” a man who is superior to the average man in some way. A man one might say closely resembles Oedipus Rex. But Oedipus is more imperfect than perfect, as he commits his actions in haste and is unable to see what is happening around him. His hamartia was the main reason for his downfall. In the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus demonstrates his errors in judgement through his hubris, blindness, and foolishness and therefore is at fault. Oedipus’s great hubris led him to a path where he couldn’t come back from. His blindness and ignorance to the truth caused Oedipus to take actions that he thought would aid him escape the prophecy told by the oracle. His actions justify the line of events that occur in the play. Oedipus’s hubris led him to a path where he couldn’t come back from. Oedipus grew up as the Prince of Corinth but as he discovered at a banquet that he wasn’t the true son of King Polybus. He immediately left for the oracle at Delphi. “To his questions regarding his parentage the oracle was silent; instead it repeated to him the curse it had uttered to Laius some twenty years previously.” (Sophocles, 18) Oedipus thought he could prevent himself from killing Polybus, by leaving Corinth. Even though he left in hurry because of the words from an unknown man and repeated words of the oracle, could have been proven in Corinth from the servant and Polybus. But Oedipus’s poor judgement in leaving Corinth caused him to further the curse. His ego made him commit deeds he wouldn’t have done before. Oedipus lived the life of the prince of Corinth. He did posses any qualities that contained a strong ego or greed. But once he fulfilled the prophecy,... ... middle of paper ... ...elieves his actions are appropriate to escape his wretched fate. Oedipus’ errors in judgement are portrayed through his hubris, blindness, and foolishness throughout the play. The actions that Oedipus took were taken in haste leading him to a path of no return. Due to Oedipus’ blindness and ignorance, he is unable to see past the truth. His hamartia was his poor sense of judgement; he tried to go against his own fate by making decisions on his own. He was warned by many around him but did not seem to be more cautious or stop chasing a hurting truth. Oedipus was responsible for his own downfall, his constant persistence of going against wise people’s words and acting on the belief of his own intelligence ultimately led him to a path of destruction. In the end, he went from being known as the noble King of Thebes to a blinded man who has no point of living anymore.
When the play Oedipus The King is mentioned, what do you think of? I think of a very ignorant man that tries to escape his fate-- a man that had so much confidence in himself that he would put false accusations on people and defy his gods just because he thinks he is right. During the play, Oedipus realizes his own flaws while he investigates who the "true killer" of Laius is.
The hubris which Oedipus has is a fatal flaw that makes him struggle with the notion of his fate and reality. This causes him to act arrogantly and wrongly in situations he is confronted with. Oedipus demonstrates hubris by trying to deny his fate by running away from his mother and father (who he thought to be). It was destined by the Delphi Oracle for him to marry his mother and kill his father, yet Oedipus tries to alter this by starting a new life: "I was the man who should marry his own mother, shed his father’s blood ...
Oedipus’ downfall was caused by his lack of knowledge, hasty decisions, and false justice. Bernard Knox says this clearly “these attributes of divinity – knowledge, certainty, justice - are all qualities Oedipus thought he possessed – and that is why he was the perfect example if the inadequacy of human knowledge, certainty, and justice”. Oedipus was meant do the crimes he committed based on the actions of his parents, but he did not have certainty of knowledge and made the rest of his life miserable. Oedipus caused his own downfall by lacking the qualities of knowledge, certainty, and
Oedipus thinks his human powers can match anything put in front of him. He forces other characters to tell him things, which again creates his tragic ending. (O790) Oedipus by not knowing his identity seems to create his own tragedy. Throughout the entire play, he is blind to everything people are telling him. (O320) He continues to badger Teiresias to answer things that Oedipus does not believe is true. If he only stopped, asking questions his fate might have been different. (O385) Because of these answers, he begins to suspect that people are plotting against him. He feels that he is above such lowly deeds. His own conceit and blind confidence in himself helps him continue towards a tragic ending. (O452-460) While Teiresias was predicting the future of Oedipus, he should have been smart enough to listen. He should have started to change his ways before he ended up destroying himself. Oedipus' guilt was beginning to play tricks on his mind. At the beginning of the play, Oedipus was on the top of the mortal world. Now he is finding out the truth about his past and his world starts to crumble around him.
Oedipus the King conveys many lessons that are relevant to people living today despite the fact that it was written by Sophocles twenty four centuries ago. Oedipus is a child destined to kill his father and marry his mother. During his life, he makes many mistakes trying to avoid his fate. These mistakes teach us about the nature of humans under certain circumstances. Oedipus possesses personality traits which causes him to make wrong decisions. Attributes like arrogance and his inability to make calm decisions in certain scenarios due to his anger causes his downfall. Oedipus’ excessive pride, like many people today, was an important factor that brought him grief. Oedipus’ lack of patience caused him to make hasty decisions which lead him to his greatest agony. Oedipus’ massive ego turned into excessive vanity, this was the first step to his downfall. Oedipus talks to Creon about the murderer of Laius. He declares, “Then I’ll go back and drag that shadowed past to light… but by myself and for myself I’ll break this plague” (Sophocles, 11). Oedipus is saying that he will be the on...
At one time in our lives there is a moment that we may think of ourselves as better than someone or something else. There may also be a point when making a decision leads to a great error in judgment. In the play Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, both of these characteristics can be seen in the main character. These characteristics are known as tragic flaws. These flaws are known as hubris meaning excess pride, leading to overconfidence, and hamartia meaning errors and weakness in judgment. Both of these characteristics are the main reason of destruction and downfall in mankind and the tragic hero in this play. The tragic hero is unable to escape his misfortune that is destined to happen. There are many more tragic flaws other than these two that also contribute to the falling of the hero. The destruction and downfall can be seen as fate. Even though the hero chooses his own actions, the resulting consequences that come about are ones that are unable to be changed. As seen, no one is able to outrun his or her own fate.
Oedipus demonstrates that he is not a purely evil character by fleeing his home town for safety of others, taking care of his city and accepting responsibility for his actions. Once Oedipus has grown to be a young man he is told that he is to kill his father and sleep with his mother because it is his fate. As a result “I [Oedipus] herd and fled” to Thebes so he can prevent those actions from occurring (822). Oedipus runs away from his fate to help himself out as well as his family. He does not want to kill his father; therefore, he runs away from his fate for the safety of his father. This shows that he is not a purely evil character because he is saving a life and looking after others besides himself. However, running from what he believes is his fate causes him to run into his real fate which leads to his downfall as a leader. On the other hand, it causes Oedipus to take the position as king of Thebes. Being leader of the city, he is forced into
By going against the larger celestial order, his tragic. fate is determined by the. Eventually, it is Oedipus who chooses his path. the one of ignorance rather than clarity, and in doing so, he must. take responsibility for his actions.
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
From the very beginning, Oedipus was destined to fulfill Apollo's prophecy of killing his father. Even though King Lauis tries to kill Oedipus to stop the fulfillment of this shameful prophecy, fate drives the Corinthian messenger to save Oedipus. What the gods fortell will come true and no human can stop it from happening, not even the kings. Oedipus is once again controlled by this power when he leaves the place of his child hood after he hears that he is to kill his father and marry his mother. "I shall shrink from nothing...to find the the murderer of Laius...You are the murderer..." Oedipus tried to stop the prophecy from coming true by leaving Corinth and only fate can make Oedipus turn to the road where he kills his true father. Leaving Corinth makes Oedipus lose his childhood by making him worry of such issues young people should not have to worry about and becoming a king of a strange land. Last of all, Oedipus carries the last part of the prophecy out, marrying his mother. " I would... never have been known as my mother's husband. Oedipus has no control over the outcome of his life. Fate causes Oedipus to have known the answer to the Sphinx's riddle and win his marriage to his mother, Jocasta. Had fate not intervened, the chances of marrying Jocasta would have been small since there is an enourmous number of people and places to go. Oedipus loses his sense of dignity after he discovers he is not only a murderer, but also that he had committed incest.
In the end Oedipus can only ponder on if things could have been different had he seen the truth earlier on. Without Oedipus’ search for Laius’s killer he may have never the truth of his life. Oedipus kills his farther and marries his mother only to have come to realize his children are his siblings. In horror and despair, he gouges his eyes out and is exiled from Thebes. (shmoop editorial team) Oedipus is actually the son of Laius and Jocasta, the King and Queen of Thebes. Thus, he is a noble in the simplest sense; that is, his parents were themselves royalty. Second, Oedipus himself believes he is the son of Polybus and Merope, the King and Queen of Corinth. (upenn) with all the events that occurred Oedipus is undeniably a tragic hero. The story leaves the reader with can one escape their
In conclusion, Oedipus’s pride, or hubris was the tragic flaw throughout the play that ultimately led him to the state he finds himself in at the end of the play. As John Weigel puts it “The play is not a tragedy of fate. Not only does the protagonist act freely, but his own character is essential to events. The oracles set in motion a group of free mortals whose encounters are governed partly by their own choices, partly by apparent chance. As so often, causes seem to be both divine and human. “ (Weigel, p. 731) However, Oedipus is still a tragic hero because he eventually becomes aware of his faults (after great loss) and accepts responsibility for his actions.
Oedipus Rex is considered to be one of the world’s greatest tragedies written by an ancient greek playwright named Sophocles. His prophecy for a man to kill his father, wife, and mother. Furthermore, as his parents tried to stop it, they unknowingly caused it. Also, the various symbols that Sophocles exemplifies throughout the tragedy help illustrate that fate is inevitable, and the truth will always prevail.
Oedipus, is one of the antagonists in Oedipus Rex, he is also one of the main examples of having a temper. He has a short fuse, which is just waiting to be set off. He blows up in people’s faces about nothing and accuses them wrongly and irrationally without looking into the details. Oedipus might be thought of as a great and powerful king, but he reacts suddenly and defensively to anyone who dares defy him, he blames people with problems that have not been looked into, and he is always paranoid that someone is out to get him. The first problem about Oedipus is that he reacts suddenly and defensively to anyone who dares to defy him.
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.