Oedipus Rex Tragic Hero Essay

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is one of the most significant tragedies in all history. The story takes place in Thebes, Greece; with the undergoing plot of incest, murder, and the great downfall of a once powerful man. Oedipus Rex conveys all aspects of a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. (Tragic Hero as Defined by Aristotle). To be considered a tragic hero, the character must convey five specific characteristics; hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis, hubris, and a fate that is greater than deserved.

As a young child, he was doomed of the horrible fate of marrying his mother and murdering his father. Thus, his parents, Laius and Jocasta, send one of their

Jocasta explains that there is a sole survivor of the attack at the crossroads, and will send him immediately. This is the only chance they have at finding the criminal. The man is brought to them. At first, the shepherd is unwilling to speak, but under the threat of death he tells all he knows about Oedipus- He is the son of Laius and Jocasta. At this point in the story, Oedipus is experiencing anagnorisis; the point in the plot especially of a tragedy at which the protagonist recognizes his or her or some other character's true identity or discovers the true nature of his or her own situation (Merriam Webster). Oedipus, taken aback from the information, is in disbelief. Jocasta runs into the castle, ashamed that the prophecy has come true; she then hangs herself out of grief. When Oedipus finds her body he does the unthinkable; “when the poor woman was lying on the ground—what happened next was a horrific sight—from her clothes he ripped the golden brooches she wore as ornaments, raised them high, and drove them deep into his eyeballs, crying as he did so: “You will no longer see all those atrocious things I suffered, the dreadful things I did! No. You have seen what you never should have looked upon, and what I wished to know you did not see. So now and for all future time be dark!”