Oedipus, a Tragic Hero

By nature, man is imperfect, a living being who has weaknesses to mar his strengths. Sophocles, a famous tragic play-writer, demonstrates the essence of being an imperfect person through one of plays, called Oedipus Rex, featuring a noble man by the name of Oedipus. Oedipus, cherished for his leadership and care of his country and people, makes unwise choices that lead him to destruction, proving that man determines his own destiny and pays the consequences for his choices. Oedipus gets a taste of his own destruction through his characteristics of being a tragic hero: he is neither good nor bad as a person, maintains his tragic flaw: anger, he suffers, he takes responsibility as a leader, and he arouses pity and fear among the audience. As a result, Oedipus, the protagonist in Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex, is an excellent example of a tragic hero.

The first characteristic of a tragic hero is that he or she is neither completely good nor completely bad. In the tragic, Oedipus proves to be a good man in the beginning of the play because he leaves Corinth, the city in which he was raised, in order to protect his "parents," King Polybus and Queen Merope, from the prophecy of the Delphi that stated the horrible fate that he would murder his father and marry his mother. To hear this fate and realize that he is living under the same roof with whom he believes to be his "parents" and that he would kill one of them and marry the other would give any child a nightmare. Under normal circumstances, the act of incest is inappropriate and unthinkable and Oedipus is scared of the truth that it might happen. To Oedipus, just the thought of killing the man who raised him and then bearing children with his mother is unimaginable. As their adopted son, he leaves Corinth in hopes that the prophecy would never be fulfilled and that his parents would be well-off without him. Oedipus once again proves to be a good man by the way he treats people and seeks the cause of the plague. When he was confronted with the dilemma of the plague, he shows absolute concern for his people through his words and actions. As a leader, this is the responsibility he must take to keep his country strong because his people look up to him, helplessly and in desperation, and seeks for his care and his trust that their king is able to fix the horrors of the deadly plague. Oedipus responds by comforting his people and speaking about how devastated he is and how much he wants to protect his people. As his responsibility as king, he reassures them that he will promise to punish and exile the murderer of the previous king of Thebes, Laius, and will bring justice to his city. This is characteristic of the good side of Oedipus is crucial as a tragic hero because the audience must first acknowledge the fact that Oedipus is dependable and confident as a leader. However, his imperfect side reveals itself when he makes fun of Tiresia's blindness and his abilities to prophesize when Oedipus gets accused of killing King Laius and bringing upon the plague. Oedipus, a king with immeasurable ego and pride felt insulted that he, the savior and destroyer of the sphinx that almost consumed the last bits of Thebes, was now indicted with murder of the good King Laius. Outraged and furious, Oedipus curses Tiresias. He calls him a liar, a conspirator of Laius' murder, and many other undeserving names. From here, Oedipus swift actions and words that were used to reassure his people are turned against him. From the caring, thoughtful king, his anger and ego led him to be ignorant and falsely accuse Tiresias of events that never happened. As a tragic hero, Oedipus "...act[s] according to his own vision of experience" and only believes what he thinks is right (Doc. C). Not only that, in order for Oedipus to live up to his "heroic greatness." (Doc. C). With that said, although Oedipus tries to maintain being a great king to his country, his tragic flaw leads him to numb his considerations of other possible alternations of options before immediate false accusation. This is the reason why Oedipus brings himself to his own destruction.

After Oedipus' conflict with Tiresias, it becomes clear to the audience that it is Oedipus' uncontrollable anger or his "harmartia" (tragic flaw) that leads him to his downfall (Doc. A).This is the second characteristic in the criteria of being a tragic hero. Aristotle, a Greek scholar and play-writer also known for his interests and expertise in tragic dramas, explains that all tragic heroes have their own harmartia. Sophocles has given Oedipus' harmartia to be his unruly anger that made him also accuse Creon of being a conspirator to overthrow Oedipus. Because of the fact that Creon had introduced and invited Tiresias to tell Oedipus of the fate of his country, Oedipus' fast-temper and ignorance once again takes over and immediately formulates the thought that Creon is a betrayer and wants to take the spot of Oedipus. Despite the fact that Creon is Oedipus' brother-in-law and close friend, Oedipus had let his overreaction and anger interfere with their friendship. Oedipus, thinking that he had been fooled once by Tiresias, was not planning to be fooled again by his own friend and advisor, therefore, he refuses to think twice and consider Creon's perspective of the situation. Also, Oedipus' harmartia resulted in bringing death upon his father, Laius, at the three-way crossroads. At the crossroads, Oedipus furiously massacres almost all of Laius' men and his father unknowingly after being hit by a goad. Oedipus' reaction to this is definitely an overreaction and could have been easily prevented if he had processed the fact that a stick had given him a mere bump on the head. This scene plays out to be an essential link to his downfall because the audience fears and knows this was the first mistake that Oedipus makes to fulfill his first step of completing the prophecy and advances toward his doom.