Table of Contents
Thesis
Oedipus Rex is a story written by the Greek creator Sophocles which was performed around 430 BC. Oedipus is a famous literary figure known for his unconventional love for his mother. Oedipus was the King of Thebes whose arrogance and ignorance play a major factor on his journey for truth. He is considered a man of misfortune due to his errors in judgment. His journey is met with obstacles from those who hide the truth and from his own blindness to the truth.
Aristotle was a great scientist in ancient Greek times who developed the theory of rhetoric and wrote many works on psychology, political science, and astronomy to name only a few (Engel, 2008). Aristotle was also heavily involved with philosophical logic within the study of right and wrong working under Plato, his mentor, who solely invested himself in drama and philosophy (Engel, 2008). Is Oedipus a tragic hero from Aristotle’s example of a tragic hero?
Introduction
The play starts out with Oedipus’ parents being told by an oracle that Oedipus was going to kill his father and marry his mother. After hearing this, they baby Oedipus to a messenger and telling him to take him up the mountain and leave him for dead. Rather than following their wishes, the messenger took the baby to the King and Queen of Corinth and they raised him as his own. As Oedipus grew up, he heard of the rumors that the King and Queen were not his real parents which lead Oedipus to ask an oracle who his parents were. The oracle didn’t answer him but told him of the prophecy of him killing his father and marrying his mother.
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Oedipus, who is the protagonist is thought of as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes judgment errors that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. Oedipus certainly fits Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero much meet certain characteristics. These characteristics are a tragic flaw that leads to a downfall of a hero, excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order of things, reversal fate, a moment when the hero makes an important discovery in the story, a punishment that is a result in the characters pride, and feelings of pity and fear which is felt by the audience, for the inevitable downfall of the protagonist (Literary Devices).
Throughout the play, Oedipus has many judgment errors. His first being his arrogance (excessive pride). When he speaks to the crowd regarding the plague and other problems, he proclaims that he is the only one smart enough to have defeated the sphinx, saying “With a sound of prayer and lamentation. Children, I would not have you speak through messengers, And therefore I have come myself to hear you—I, Oedipus, who bear the famous name.” (Sophocles line 6-9).
Although is was right, this ended up allowing him to see the truth of the prophecy. Although this was a symbol of arrogance, one of the worst judgment errors is his ignorance of the prophecy. Oedipus prides himself on being a master of solving riddles, though the play is littered with warnings for him. In the play, Teiresias warns Oedipus saying “This day will bring your birth and your destruction” (Sophocles, line 499).
Oedipus ignores this subtle hint foreshadows the origins of Oedipus, the death of his wife, the loss of his sight, and the decree he pronounced on Laius’s murderer being carried out upon Oedipus himself. Another example or arrogance and ignorance by Oedipus is when he ignored the prophecy and cursed himself, saying “I curse myself as well…if by any chance he proves to be an intimate of our house” (Sophocles, line 284). He hasn’t yet realized he is the murder and is thus cursing himself—a curse that will later be carried out. These examples and others throughout the play combined make for a devastating tragedy.
In the play, Oedipus faces two major reversals of fortune as described by Aristotle. The first is when Oedipus states “I count myself the son of Chance, the great goddess, giver of all good things—I’ll never see myself disgraced” (Sophocles, lines 1188-1190). These lines let the audience know that this prophecy will be fulfilled but, in the end, will ultimately die. Because of this, Oedipus’ fortunes change when he realizes that he fulfilled the prophecy.
He consults with an oracle who proves that he caused the plague and the negativity surrounding his life. In hearing this, is life takes an emotional downfall that brings this tragic hero to his grim fate. In addition, Oedipus constantly accuses Teiresias of conspiring against him with Kreon. This leads his allies to turn against him and his fortunes to reverse as he leaves home, only to marry his mother and unknowingly fulfill the prophecy. His extreme paranoia created a self-fulfilling prophecy and directly reversed his fortunes.
A key part of Aristotle’s tragic hero definition requires the hero to recognize that they caused their own fate. As the play progresses, Oedipus cries “Pride breeds the tyrant violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting with all that is overripe and rich with ruin—clawing up to the heights, headlong pride crashes down the abyss—sheer doom” (Sophocles, 429 BC, lines 963-967). Jocasta continues to warn him to stop searching for the truth. Oedipus’ pride gets the best of him and is his downfall throughout the play. He prides himself as being favored by the gods, but when trying to provide evidence of this, he only proves that he suffers from a cruel fate.
Once Oedipus realizes that Jocasta is his mother and was in fact not raised by his birth parents, he comes to grips that he did kill his father and he did marry his mother. Oedipus’ anagnorisis occurs when he comes to terms that the prophecy is in fact true. He quickly returns home and finds Jocasta dead and stabs his eyes out as he believes it is better to lo longer see the things and people around him. With the overwhelming grief and rage he screams “What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy” (Sophocles, lines 1471-72).
Another factor in Aristotle’s tragic hero is excessive pride which fuels their actions and ultimately causes their fate. As previously mentioned, this play shows Oedipus’ ignorance and arrogance, that only he can solve the sphinx’s riddle because he’s a self-proclaimed master riddle solver. However, his friends gave him subtle riddles about the king’s death, yet he was too arrogant to solve them. With Oedipus’ interactions with Kreon throughout the play, it really shows his excessive pride, or hubris.
He drives himself into paranoia as he insists that Kreon and Teiresias are conspiring against him, he believes that they are going to destroy him. He constantly rejects Teiresias’ warnings. When first confronted with the accusation that he committed the murder, Oedipus immediately warns of a conspiracy. When Oedipus was told of the prophecy that he will unknowingly sleep with his mother, Oedipus arrogantly flees, ironically fulfilling his destiny. Therefore, his own Hubris is was caused his own downfall, falling from his own estate and facing undeserved punishment.
Another of Aristotle’s characteristics of a tragic hero is that the character will character die or have immense suffering, and to a degree that outweighs what it seems like the character deserved. The predicaments that Oedipus puts himself in ends his story quickly. Oedipus ignored the prophecy that he would marry his mother, the warnings from Jocasta and Teiresias telling him not to keep looking for answers and giving him riddles about his fate.
Throughout the play, Oedipus’ quest to find the murderer described by the oracle is made with the best intentions, but Oedipus is a man who has made a mistake. When reading this play and seeing Oedipus’ arrogance and unknowing decision to sleep with his mother, ignoring the subtle hints from Teiresias, finding Jocasta dead and stabbing out his eyes, Oedipus is a prime example of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero who did not deserve their fate.
“Yet in the end ruin swept over him. Let every man in mankind’s frailty Consider his last day; and let none Presume on his good fortune until he find Life, at his death, a memory without pain” (Sophocles, lines 1471-1475). Oedipus can see but one side of a matter – too often he sees that wrongly – and it is his fashion immediately to act upon such half-knowledge, as the dictates, not of his reason at all, but of the first feeling which happens to come uppermost (Barstow, 912). “fulfills the function of a tragedy, and arouses fear and pity in the highest degree” (Barstow, 1912)
References
- Engel, E. (2008). Aristotle, Law and Justice: The Tragic Hero. Northern Kentucky Law Review Vol. 35(1), 1-18.
- LiteraryDevices Editors. (2013). Tragic Hero. Retrieved February 22, 2019, from https://literarydevices.net/tragic-hero/
- Barstow, M. (1912). Oedipus Rex as the Ideal Tragic Hero of Aristotle. The Classical Weekly, 6(1), 2-4. doi:10.2307/4386601
- Sophocles (430 BC) Oedipus Rex
