...Running head: Oedipus-A Tragic Hero Research Paper ENGL 102: Literature and Composition) Fall 2015 Melinda Meeds L26683811 APA Outline Thesis: In Sophocles’ “Oedipus”, Oedipus is exemplified as a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s definition because his story appeals to the reader’s humanity in the way he maintains his strengths after inadvertently causing his own downfall. I. Oedipus A. The noble birth. B. Describe Oedipus’ character. II. Tragedy A. Describe what a tragedy is. B. Describe the tragedies Oedipus has faced. III. A tragic hero A. Describe what makes Oedipus a tragic hero. B. Describe how Oedipus handles life after the pitfalls he has faced. Oedipus-A Tragic Hero Sophocles’ Oedipus is a very well-known tragic hero in dramatic literature. Oedipus, in the story, is a king with a great personality however his morality is what leads him to his demise. This mish mash of Oedipus’ disposition is what leads a reader to feeling sympathetic. In Sophocles’ “Oedipus”, Oedipus is exemplified as a tragic hero according to Aristotle’s definition because his story appeals to the reader’s humanity in the way he maintains his strengths after inadvertently causing his own downfall. According to Aristotle, "a man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall” (Hume, n.d.). In Sophocles’ Oedipus, Oedipus possesses specific qualities that allow him to be considered a tragic hero. These qualities include...
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...Oedipus as a Tragic Hero Oedipus, who is a great ruler with the ideal characteristics that a hero would have, falls under the category of a tragic hero based off Aristotle’s definition. According to Aristotle, Oedipus fits in as an ideal tragic hero due to the the reader’s connection to the protagonist in regards to the emotional attachment created, the fear of what will happen due to a major flaw in the character, and the pitying for the hero as he suffers while facing his destiny. The nobility that Oedipus posses is an integral trait that makes the reader feel attached to his character. Although he does not yet know, he is the son of Laius and Jocasta, who were better known to be the King and Queen of Thebes. Even though they were not his biological parents, Oedipus himself believed that he was the son of Polybus and Merope, King and Queen of Corinth. “Polybus of Corinth was my father, my mother was the Dorian Merope” (Gould 775). Another heroic action...
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...September 2013 Oedipus Tragic Hero Webster’s dictionary defines a hero as a person, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Although this definition accurately describes Oedipus’ character, tragic hero is more of an apt description. A tragic hero is defined usually by the following: One, A man of noble stature. Two, A selfless man who is not afraid to come under scrutiny. Three, The hero honorably receives the punishment given to him. From the beginning to end of the play Oedipus The King, by Sophocles, Oedipus truly defines himself as a hero, a tragic hero. Oedipus is first introduced as the sole ruler of Thebes. Kings/Dictators are usually looked down upon due to their brash and selfish behavior, but Oedipus is the opposite. A priest say, “Therefore, O mighty power, we turn to you: find us our safety, find us a remedy, whether by counsel of the gods or of men. A king of wisdom tested in the past can act in a time of troubles, and act well. Noblest of men, restore life to your city! “(Sophocles 2) when Oedipus makes a declaration to save the city of Thebes from the ongoing plague. The priest calls him the “Noblest of men” in marvel, at the fact, a man of such high stature and importance takes the time to address the concerns of his people. The words used to describe Oedipus such as liberator, noblest of men, boldness, and mighty power show that the people of Thebes rely on and look to Oedipus for safety and guidance...
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...Oedipus, however, is a contradictory hero, an ambiguous model. Indeed, it represents both superior wisdom and absolute horror. Oedipus is the equivalent of incest. He commits crimes that disrupt the order of the world and that bring plague on the city. So do not think of him as a hero of entity worthy of admiration. Moreover, he is not subject to action, his destiny, he does not control the plot, as one would expect it from a hero. He only submits to the prophecies spoken by the gods, he is only a pawn in their plans. Although he seems active, leading a quest to get to know himself, his position is not heroic since he is the last to discover the truth about his origins. So that's rather a pathetic image offered by the character of Oedipus, on whom the spell falls. It is more a martyr a role reinforced...
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...Our idea of a “hero” today is very different from the ancient Greeks’ concept of what a “hero” is. The Greeks believed that a hero was a human, who had superhuman abilities by virtue. Many of the heroes resulted from an illicit relationship between a human and a deity. While a human and deity creating a child would be considered fictional today, the ancient Greeks believed that these heroes were mortals, but were worthy of worship despite their mortality. They were subjects of local religious worship and served as models for the ancient citizens. The heroic myths functioned as a method for recording history and providing precedent for political programs. The ancient Greeks valued loyalty, intelligence, family, and glory amongst many other...
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...A tragic hero, without an audiences' sympathy, is nothing more than a wasted character. The hero must have nobility, enough to reward him credibility with their audience. From there, he must reach a turning point from his former fortune to utter misery by the hands of his own landmark flaw. With these three combinations, he must, without exception, achieve audience sympathy; without it his lesson becomes useless, just he himself does. Though she may not fit the mold of the tragic Aristotle defined, Nora surpasses the title entirely. While still holding the three key features of nobility, harmartia, and peripetia, Nora claims victory over Oedipus as audiences willing give her their sympathy, making her the more affective tragic hero. Despite...
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...Oedipus the King: The Hero of Personal Autonomy in Inevitable Fate Tragedy Abstract: Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, who was one of Athens’s three great tragic dramatists, is an indisputably classical tragedy in literature history. And Oedipus’s tragic fate, murdering his father and marrying his mother, is the most controversial point. This paper mainly analyzes the conflict between Oedipus’s spirit of personal autonomy and the oracle predetermined fate, and the causes of Oedipus’s inevitable tragedy. Key word: Oedipus; personal autonomy; fate; inevitability Introduction Oedipus the King is based on a Greek myth that Oedipus killed his father and married to his mother, showing the Greek tragedy’s conflict rich of typical significance...
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...develops an emotional attachment to the tragic hero; second, the audience fears what may befall the hero; and finally (after misfortune strikes) the audience pities the suffering hero. Through these attachments the individual members of the audience go through a catharsis, a term which Aristotle borrowed from the medical writers of his day, which means a "refining" -- the viewer of a tragedy refines his or her sense of difficult ethical issues through a vicarious experious of such thorny problems. Clearly, for Aristotle's theory to work, the tragic hero must be a complex and well-constructed character, as in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. As a tragic hero, Oedipus elicits the three needed responses from the audience far better than most; indeed, Aristotle and subsequent critics have labeled Oedipus the ideal tragic hero. A careful examination of Oedipus and how he meets and exceeds the parameters of the tragic hero reveals that he legitimately deserves this title. Oedipus' nobility and virtue provide his first key to success as a tragic hero. Following Aristotle, the audience must respect the tragic hero as a "larger and better" version of themselves. The dynamic nature of Oedipus' nobility earns him this respect. First, as any Greek audience member would know, Oedipus is actually the son of Laius and Jocasta, the King and Queen of Thebes. Thus, he is a noble in the simplest sense; that is, his parents were themselves royalty. Second, Oedipus himself believes he is the son of...
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...Fitzgerald. The Oedipus Cycle. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1958. Print. The Alabama A&M University World Literature Anthology. New York: Pearson, 2009. Scodel, Ruth. "Oedipus the King." An Introduction to Greek Tragedy. New York: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print. What defines an epic hero? There are many things that do, and I’m going to break the Epic Hero Cycle down describing how Job from the bible qualifies as an epic hero in the following passage. I will first list, and describe each step in the Epic Hero Cycle, then give a brief summary of the story, then describe each step of the Epic Hero Cycle using references of Oedipus from the Oedipus the King. The first step of the Epic Hero Cycle is meeting the main character, who usually possesses some type of supernatural power. The character is introduced, sometimes with an introduction. Occasionally there is a brief background on the character. The hero’s family may be introduced. The hero’s life may be good at the time, or it may be going bad. The second step of the Epic Hero Cycle is when the hero is charged with a quest. Usually given by a king or someone in high power, the hero is sent off on a voyage. Sometimes the hero is a figure such as an ultimate warrior, and the king sends him on a voyage since he is the bravest. The third step in the Epic Hero Cycle is when the hero is challenged with a test. The test is to prove himself as a worthy hero who can overcome...
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...Hamartia in Oedipus the King 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. Oedipus’ character flaw is ego. This is made evident in the opening lines of the prologue when he states "Here I am myself--you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus." (ll. 7-9) His conceit is the root cause of a number of related problems. Among these are recklessness, disrespect, and stubbornness. Oedipus displays an attitude of recklessness and disrespect throughout the play. When he makes his proclamation and no one confesses to the murder of Laius, Oedipus loses patience immediately and rushes into his curse. Later, he displays a short temper to Tiresias: "You, you scum of the earth . . . out with it, once and for all!," (ll. 381, 383) and "Enough! Such filth from him? Insufferable--what, still alive? Get out--faster, back where you came from--vanish!" (ll. 490-492) If an unwillingness to listen may be considered stubbornness, certainly Oedipus would take advice from no one who would tell him to drop the matter of his...
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...A hero is defined as many things. One who is selfless, one who shows compassion, one who not only leads others into battle but fights alongside them. In the greek parables, The Odyssey, by Homer and in Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles a hero is described as someone who perseveres on even when burdened by the weight of the unknown. The hero of The Odyssey is named Odysseus, a young man who overcame many trials to get back to his home in Ithaca, and the hero of Oedipus Rex is King Oedipus, a ruler who has his people's best interest at heart. The protagonists in these tales are both reputed to have heroic qualities and yet how they dealt with being receptive to new ideas, their humility, and their relationship with a higher power was what led each to...
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...Sophocles' Oedipus is a perfect fit to Aristotle's Ideal Tragic Hero. Oedipus follows all of the rules, with a hamartia, an anagnorisis, and a peripeteia. The audience is introduced to the hamartia, or tragic flaw, of Oedipus early in the play. Oedipus believes he can dodge the oracle given to him at Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother. By leaving the city of Corinth and heading to Thebes, Oedipus thinks that he can outsmart the will that the gods have for him. However, the audience knows that one cannot run away from an oracle. The oracle will come true no matter what is done. Therefore, the hamartia of Oedipus is his belief that he can evade his oracle. Oedipus' anagnorisis, recognition, later comes when he is told that it was he who killed the former King Lauis and that he is, in fact, now married to his own mother. The city of Thebes had been searching for King Lauis' murderer in order to drive him out of Thebes to save the city from the plague. With this anagnorisis Oedipus is finally led to his peripeteia, or downfall. First of all, Oedipus is put to shame in front of his entire city because of his incestuous act of marrying his mother. But, more importantly, he realizes that he had not successfully avoided the oracle. In order to try to save himself he blinds himself. If he is not able to see the truth with his own eyes, he should not be able to enjoy the gift of sight. http://personal.monm.edu/ysample/aristotle.htm Oedipus follows ten of the points...
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...Christian Lescznske Professor Larkin ELIT2055-B 31 March 2014 The Hero’s Journey: Comparing and Contrasting Heroes Joseph Campbell was an American psychologist and mythological researcher. In his lifelong research, Campbell discovered many common patterns running through hero myths and stories from around the world. Years of research lead Campbell to discover several basic stages that almost every hero-quest goes through (no matter what culture the myth is a part of). He calls this common structure “the monomyth” (Hero’s Journey). The “hero’s journey” appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. It describes the typical adventure of The Hero, who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the family, group, tribe, or civilization. There are twelve steps, or stages, of the typical “Hero’s Journey”. The twelve steps are: The ordinary world, the call to adventure, refusal of the call, meeting with the mentor, crossing the threshold, a test, the approach, the ordeal, the reward, the road back, the resurrection, and the return with the elixir, or reward. As I previously stated, Campbell’s monomyth works best with the traditional form of the quest such as in folk and fairy tales, myths, legends, and other fantasies. However, it can be applied to many different genres or types of stories. A quest does not have to include swords and monsters. It can just as easily occur in the real world. The monomyth is ageless and universal...
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...them tragedies or make the characters in them tragic heroes. In one of the “earliest surviving works of dramatic theory” of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, he laid out his rules for what is the foundation of a tragedy and a tragic hero. In the play by Sophocles, Oedipus stands out as a classic representation of what a tragedy hero is. Oedipus the book has key aspects that Aristotle said to make a tragedy and a tragic hero. One of the requirements for being a tragic hero according to Aristotle is "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." There must be some mistake made by the character flaw that causes the great man’s fortunes to turn for the worst. Aristotle felt that there were certain plot devices that needed to take place in order for it to qualify as a tragedy and for the character to really be a tragic hero. Without a tragic hero there cannot be a tragedy happening, plot is a very important point. The plot of a true tragedy should be complex and consist of reversal and recognition. Both of these plot elements are contained within the play Oedipus the King. The play starts out highlighting Oedipus’ character by showing him talking to the grieving citizens in front of his palace. They are praying to the gods to stop the plague that is destroying Thebes. He mourns with his people over the hardships that have befallen the land of Thebes...
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...tragic hero according Aristotle’s Poetics, is an ideal noble man with a flaw. Oedipus fits into the context of a flawed man, a man with given stature, and catharsis that propel him into a tragic hero. Oedipus as a tragic hero is caring concerned king whom the people trusted and loved. However, his impulsive temper caused him to make mistakes. On, the other, hand, Willie Lowman was a tragic hero as he was ready to lay down his love for the love of his family. Miller gives the flawed sense of a tragic hero in the sense of personal dignity that Lowman is willing to fulfill even in his death. The characteristics that Miller offers in terms catharsis and stature fits Lowman, he involved himself in a car accident so that his son Biff could use the insurance money to start a business and become a successful person in the society. This paper will discuss Willie Lowman, and Oedipus, as tragic heroes based on the stature, tragic flaw, and catharsis in their respective stories. A tragic hero according to Miller is a common person as opposed to the belief that a tragic hero must be a form of a king. He says, “we are often held to be below tragedy or tragedy below us……… that tragedy fits only for the highly placed… where this admission is not made in so many words it is often implied.” A tragic hero, therefore, is a common and both a highly placed person in the society. The belief that tragedy does not affect a common forces Miller to use a common, in his, novel as the tragic hero. Willie...
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