Oedipus Essay, Research Paper

degree Celsiuss Hero

In the drama Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Oedipus is a authoritative tragic hero. There are a figure of features that identify a tragic hero. Although a tragic hero causes his ain ruin, his destiny is normally non deserved, and his penalty is much worse than his offense. A tragic hero is normally person of importance or power who has a tragic defect that affects his opinion, and must so endure the effects. At the same clip, the tragic hero arouses understanding in the audience because their penalty is so great and could go on to anyone. All of the above features make Oedipus a tragic hero and one can see how these attributes cause his autumn from a mighty male monarch to a unsighted castaway. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus has been a male monarch for old ages after work outing the conundrum of the Sphinx and fring the land of a atrocious blight. From the really first, we see his tragic defect, hubris, although it takes different signifiers. The drama begins with a supplication by a priest to salvage Thebes a 2nd clip from a pestilence that has cursed the land. With this, he announces that he has already sent Creon to the Oracle to inquire what to make and proclaims that? I shall be a treasonist if I do non make what the God reveals? ( 76-77 ) . Creon returns with the prognostication from the prophet and wants to state Oedipus in private, but Oedipus tells Kreon, & # 8220 ; Speak out to us all! The heartache that burdens me concerns these work forces more than it does my life? ( 94-95 ) . Creon announces that the decease of the

old male monarch must be avenged, and Oedipus, without vacillation, takes up the cause ; & # 8220 ; Not on behalf of distant affinities, it? s for myself I will chase away this discoloration. Whoever murdered him may besides wish to penalize me- and with the selfsame manus & # 8221 ; ( 137-140 ) . Oedipus wishes himself to be seen as deeply caring for his state, while at the same clip looking out for himself, but his pride in his

abilities and his finding non to look weak in forepart of his people leads him to blindly prosecute the individuality of the liquidator, even when he is warned off by Tiresias and his married woman. Oedipus took great pride in salvaging people and being seen a hero so he would non yield in his hunt for the liquidator. He wanted the decease of Laius to be avenged and he had to be the one to happen the liquidator and penalize him. ? I? ll battle for him, I? ll leave no agencies untried, to catch the 1 who did it with his manus? ( 270-271 ) . This finding and obstinacy was his ruin. Oedipus? s brush with the blind prophesier Tiresias is another illustration of Oedipus? s hubris and a prefiguration of his ruin. Oedipus sends for Tiresias who refuses to state Oedipus who killed Laius until Oedipus accuses him of being portion of the secret plan to kill Laius, merely so, does Tiresias uncover that Oedipus was the liquidator. Oedipus is outraged by the accusal and throws abuses at the prophesier because of his

sightlessness. In world, it was Oedipus who was could non see because his pride and assurance did non desire to hear what Tiresias had to state. Because he can believe of no other ground for Tiresias to impeach him of this, he thinks that this is a secret plan by Creon to prehend the throne. In the terminal, he sends him off with a expletive after imploring him to state all that he knew. ? Am I to listen to such things from him! May you be damned! Get out of here at one time! Turn around and travel! ? ( 434-436 ) . When Creon confronts him about the accusal and he denies it, Oedipus is non persuaded. Again, Oedipus? s hubris shows. He will non be persuaded ; no affair how much sense Creon makes. He is repetitive that Creon is plotting against him, even after Jocasta intervenes and Creon makes an curse to the Gods that he did non make what Oedipus accuses. After Jocasta composure Oedipus down, she tells him what she knows about Laius? s decease. That is when he foremost suspects that he might really be the liquidator because the topographic point where Laius was slain was the same topographic point where he killed a adult male before he came to Thebes. The narrative of Laius? s slaying describes his brush with a adult male who he killed many old ages ago, except for one item ; Laius was said to hold been killed by many, while Oedipus had been entirely when he killed the adult male. When a courier comes with the intelligence that Oedipus? s male parent Polybus is dead, Oedipus believes that he has beaten the prognostication that he would kill his male parent and slumber with his female parent. He thinks that he has beaten the Gods but he is incorrect. The courier is told

that Oedipus will non travel to Corinth because he fears the 2nd portion of the prognostication about his female parent, but the courier tells him that Polybus and Merope are non his parents. Hearing this, he is determined to happen out who his parents truly are. By this clip, Jocasta knows the truth about Oedipus, and she tries to carry him to give up his hunt before it is excessively late. Oedipus,

thought that she worried that he is non of baronial birth dismisses her protests and calls for the shepherd. At first the shepherd refuses to state of Oedipus? s birth but Oedipus is relentless and threatens him with anguish. Because he does non mind the warnings of others and is so obstinate, his penalty is the cognition that the prognostication is fulfilled. Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus

blinds himself in torment. The sarcasm is that now that he can non physically see, he can now see the truth of the prognostication. He is eventually at his lowest.

And so, the tragic hero Oedipus learns a lesson from his mistakes in judgement and becomes an illustration to the audience of what happens when great work forces fall from their exalted places. Oedipus loses his sight, but additions the truth and learns humbleness. He was one time great, but because of his hubris he came to fall, and his penalty was to populate the remainder of his life with the cognition of what he had