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Oedipus the king and Aristotle
Oedipus the king and Aristotle
Oedipus the king and Aristotle
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Tragic Heroes in Oedipus the King and Death of a Salesman
The tragic hero is defined by Aristotle as "a great man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake” (Aristotle n. pag.). There are a few principles that Aristotle believes to form a tragic hero: the protagonist should be a person of power and nobility, who makes a major error in judgment and eventually comes to realization of his or her actions (Aristotle n. pag.). In Arthur Millers’ play, Death of a Salesman, he has twisted Aristotle’s belief of a tragic hero, and has created his own. Although Miller has twisted Aristotle’s belief, Sophocles’ play, Oedipus Rex, has a tragic hero (Oedipus) that follows the flaws, dignity, and acknowledgment of the truth that Aristotle believes in to make a tragic hero. It is essential for them to recognize their position and role in the play. Due to the fact that Willy Loman and Oedipus experience tragic flaws throughout their respected plays, they both have nobility, and they both realize the fact (anagnorisis) that they made an error in their life (hamartia). Through their fatal mis-steps, their pride and ego, predominately affect their familial lives, which in turn causes them to realize the truth that they are tragic heroes.
The noble characters, Oedipus and Willy rely on things of substantial value in their lives, but then unfortunately fail, further deepening their harmatia. In Arthur Millers’ essay “Tragedy and the Common Man,” he does not believe that just nobility and power over others is inadequate to just judge a select few:
Insistence upon the rank of the tragic hero, or the so-called nobility of his character, is re...
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...before something happens?” (Miller 133). Biff is getting frustrated with Willy because he is trying to turn his son into somebody that he does not want to be. Willy’s tragedy is due to the fact that the truth for him is far fetched, since he is always seeing life in a flashback, which leads to his demise.
Aristotle’s description of a tragic hero exemplify Willy Loman and Oedipus Rex very well in both their respected plays. They struggle to make the right judgment (hamartia), and with certain flaws throughout their plays, make it hard for these characters to realize the truth (anagnorisis). However, through certain evidence and different obstacles Oedipus and Willy’s demise is caused by their hamartia. Although these characters experience hope along the way, their pride and egotistical lifestyles outweigh the hope that they receive to get their life back on track.
The tradition of the tragedy, the renowned form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis, has principally become a discontinued art. Plays that evoke the sense of tragedy-the creations of Sophocles, Euripides, and William Shakespeare-have not been recreated often, nor recently due to its complex nature. The complexity of the tragedy is due to the plot being the soul of the play, while the character is only secondary. While the soul of the play is the plot, according to Aristotle, the tragic hero is still immensely important because of the need to have a medium of suffering, who tries to reverse his situation once he discovers an important fact, and the sudden downturn in the hero’s fortunes. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is the modern tragedy of a common man named Willy Loman, who, like Oedipus from Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, exhibits some qualities of a tragic hero. However, the character Willy Loman should not be considered a full-on tragic hero because, he although bears a comparable tragic flaw in his willingness to sacrifice everything to maintain his own personal dignity, he is unlike a true tragic hero, like Oedipus, because he was in full control of his fate where Oedipus was not.
All tragic heroes come across different tragedies. These tragedies often occur through the irrational decisions and actions made by these tragic heroes. Both Oedipus from Oedipus the King and Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman are portrayed as protagonists that are blind to their reality. Despite this, Oedipus seeks the truth and faces it, unlike Willy Loman, who ends up never realizing the truth. Thus, the protagonists of Death of a Salesman and Oedipus the King carry the same tragic flaws that lead to their downfalls, however, the way they see their reality differs.
Originating in Greece, tragedies were and remain a common and popular form of dramatic entertainment. To be considered an authentic tragedy, the protagonist must be one of aristocracy. This noble character begins the story as a likeable person whose destined fate is foreshadowed in dramatic irony to the reader. The reader is aware of the errors in judgment that the protagonist is inflicting on oneself. As the last to discover one’s unfortunate fate, the protagonist is devastated. The revelation is far too much to bear; therefore, the protagonist either commits suicide or inflicts pain or mutilation onto oneself. “Oedipus the King” reflects all of the essential components of a tragedy; however, “Death of a Salesman” lacks some of these defining characteristics. In “Death of a Salesman” the protagonist is not a “tragic hero” (Kennedy, Gioia 1282) like Oedipus. He lacks the nobility that is a prerequisite to being...
According to the Aristotelian characteristics of good tragedy, the tragic character should not fall due to either excessive virtue or excessive wickedness, but due to what Aristotle called hamartia. Hamartia may be interpreted as either a flaw in character or an error in judgement. Oedipus, the tragic character in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, certainly makes several such mistakes; however, the pervasive pattern of his judgemental errors seems to indicate a basic character flaw that precipitates them.
Set ages apart, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex provide different perspectives on the topic of tragedy and what is defined as a tragic hero. Although Oedipus would be thought of as better representing the tragic hero archetype due to tradition and time period, the modern tragic hero of Oedipus Rex is more of a dismal one. Through analysis of their respective hamartias, it is exemplified that the New York businessman with his humble story proves to be more thought provoking than the King of Thebes and his melancholic tale. **By incorporating a more relatable character and plot, Arthur Miller lends help to making Willy Lowman spiral toward his own downfall while building more emotion and response from the audience than with Oedipus. When Oedipus learns of his awful actions, this invokes shock and desperation. With Willy Lowman, the audience goes for a bumpy ride until the eventual, but expected, crash. ** (NEEDS WORK)
According to Aristotle, tragedy requires an admirable hero with power and in a high state, but more importantly, he or she possesses a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall. This tragic flaw most closely relates to a character’s hubris, excessive pride in themselves or their judgment. But sometimes a character cannot be categorized as tragic, and one can argue whether or not the tragic character violates the requirements. In Sophocles’ Antigone Creon and Antigone serve as tragic characters in the play; however, Creon’s character exemplifies Aristotle’s theory of tragedy.
…that of a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty. He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous — a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or other illustrious men of such families. (XIII)
Aristotle made observations of classical tragedies. He described tragedy as “an imitation of an action of high importance, complete and of some amplitude; in language enhanced by distinct and varying beauties; acted not narrated; by means of pity and fear effecting its purgation of these emotions.” Concerning the tragic hero, he must have a reversal of fortune, contain a fatal flaw, and be of a high estate. Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, is an indisputably tragic story. Willy Loman, the salesman, lived in his fantasies. He avoided reality until it was inevitable, and he could no longer live with it. The play fits into the Aristotelian definition of tragedy because Willy Loman’s success in his career declined significantly; he consistently lived in an imaginary world, and thought he was of high social class.
Dating back to Greek times, the definition of a tragic hero has been interpreted differently by many philosophers and authors. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, a struggling salesman, may not be seen as a typical tragic hero; however, Willy demonstrates the qualities of a tragic hero. Willy can be labeled as a tragic hero by Aristotle's definition because Willy has a tragic flaw, an event causes a reversal of fate for Willy, and Willy has a moment of realization. All tragic heroes possess a flaw that causes the hero to have a devastating death. Willy’s tragic flaw is his pride.
So, Willy Loman, in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, is a tragic hero because of his aspirations to be great, his tragic flaws, and his tragic downfall. Tragic heroes are very important to many texts such as Willy was to Death of a Salesman. Victor Perry explains that a tragic hero, “shows a magnified version of the consequences of that fatal flaw, as a hero 's life can be 'writ large '.” Audience members can oftentimes relate to these tragic heroes which also adds to their importance. They connect the audience to the
After much defeat Willy reflected on his life and said that he was of more value dead than alive (Miller 2173). Many arguments have been made about Willy's character; is Willy truly tragic or plainly pathetic? Considering all the factors of Willy's life that weighed upon him, the reader should determine that this low man was, indeed, tragic. Aristotle analyzed drama to form a definition of tragedy. Aristotle considered “Oedipus the King” the perfect tragedy, so he modeled his definition after the play.
Before the twentieth century plays were mainly written as either a tragedy or comedy. In a tragic play the tragic hero will often do something that will eventually destroy him. In the book Oedipus the King, Oedipus is the tragic hero. In this tragic play the main character, which is portrayed as Oedipus, will do a good deed that will in turn make him a hero. This hero will reach his height of pride in the story, and in the end the action, which he had committed earlier, will return and destroy this man who was once called a hero.
Oedipus Rex qualifies as a tragedy. It fits all the characteristics as defined by Aristotle. The tragic hero of a play is a man of some social standing and personal reputation, but sufficiently like ourselves in terms of his weaknesses that we feel fear and pity when a tragic flaw, rather than an associate, causes his downfall. Oedipus is the tragic hero in this play for many reasons. Even though he does not know it, he fulfills the oracle's prophecy by killing his father, Laius, and then sleeping with his mother, Jocasta. His father was just a tragic mistake. Oedipus thought that the person he killed was just a random person that was harassing him.
The concept of tragic hero is very important in the construction of tragedy. It is the main cause of pity and fear. The tragic hero is a character between the two extremes; he is neither virtuous nor evil. At the same time, this character is better than the ordinary men or audience, he has some good qualities. Moreover, as a tragic hero, he is moving from happiness to misery by his downfall at the end. In fact, this downfall is caused by an error or a flaw in his character not by a vice or depravity. Another feature in the tragic hero is that he has good reputation and he is a man of prosperity. It can be said that Oedipus is a tragic hero because he has all the previous mentioned characteristics and the whole play is a classical application of this concept.
While this change, as well as the changes in play production and the culture in the audience that views these plays, has had a great impact on the evolution of the tragedy, the basic ideas laid down by Aristotle remain adhered to, if not always in the way he wrote them. The tragic hero, Willy Loman, is of little virtue, being in financial trouble and growing more and more reminiscent in his old age. His fall is aided by his tragic flaw, that his pride in “selling yourself” will get one anywhere hey need to be in life, slowly tears his life apart, as well as creating unrealistic expectations of his son, thus bringing his demise. The play arouses fear and pity just as well as any classical work, possibly even more effectively due to the reatability of the “common man.” Just as in The Hairy Ape, the tragic hero dies, forcing the underlying evil on to the audience. This evolution to the common man can be explained through the evolution of society alongside tragedy. In the time of Aristotle, the best way to make a commentary on both societal and familial issues was through the eyes of nobility, which dealt with both. As time went on, however, the emergence of new societal and social issues such and women’s or worker’s rights led to the more effective tragic hero to be that of the “common man,” for they saw these issues in a was the aristocracy never could. These societal changes combined with the readability of the common man led to a shift in the tragic hero, yet never changed the underlying meaning of tragedy laid down in Aristotle’s