Oedipus as a tragic hero

Oedipus, the hero in the play ‘King Oedipus’, is the most distressed, pathetic and touching tragic hero of Sophocles of Greek tragedy and of world tragedy as well. Though he is a man of good virtues, dignity, high birth and position, he suffers the highest mental and physical suffering. Now we will consider Oedipus to be a tragic hero, especially according to Aristotle’s criteria.

According to Aristotle, a tragic hero possesses high birth and high social standing. In the case of Oedipus, we see that Oedipus is born of Lauis, the king, and Jocasta, the queen; he is brought up by Polybus, the king of Corinth, and Merope, the queen later on; he becomes a king and marries a queen, and begets children too. The citizens of Thebes consider him as their father and saviour.

A tragic hero is a man of excellent qualities, and good in his character, behaviour and action. In this case, we observe that Oedipus is simultaneously a good father, husband and above all such a king who is active in his duties, speedy in decision, and eager to know the truth. When the citizens are assembled in front of the royal palace to request him to do something as their saviour against the deplorable condition of the country, Oedipus himself faces them inspite of sending his servent to know the matter. In addition, in the meantime, he has already sent Creon to the Pythian house of Apollo to know what could be done in that situation. So, we may also say that he believes in God. Again, in order to receive some effective direction or foreword or Oracle, he sends a man to Teirasias to get him brought to him. Then, though Teiresias and Jocasta prophibits him from investigating the fact – to find out the murderer of Laius-, he insist on discovering the truth. Moreover, he has saved all the people from the riddle of Sphinx with his intellect. Again, he declares the punishment of the murderer and curses upon him. So, in general, he is a good and active man as well as king.

According to Aristotle, a tragic hero has also ‘hamartia’ or ‘tragic flow’ or some defect of character. Actually he is not a sinner but he takes some wrong decisions, and performs some wrong actions. In Oedipus, we see that though he is a possesses good qualities, he has some faults. At first, he is hot-tempered – though king Laius and others had their faults in their confront with him, on account of his very over-exitement, he killed the king. Then, he is hasty in judgement, speedy in taking decision and pervers on it. Though once such quality helped him when he faced Sphinx, later it proves fault of his behaviour. He takes decision that Teiresias and Creon have together made conspiracy against him in order to overthrow him. For this reason, he very bitterly attacks them with insulting words - of whom one is a prophet and another is a giltless man. Then, he is very proud of his Intellect that once rescued the nation. Moreover, more than once, he unknownly curses upon himself, upon the murderer of Laius for whom Thebes is suffering a lot. Here one thing is mentionable that the curse pronounced by a king was to be no stone unturned in  the ancient time. So, it has a great importance in this play. Indeed all these proceed to Oedipus’ downfall, but the main sins in the eyes of gods that have been committed by him are murdering his father and marrying his own mother. However, the first one is committed for his over exitement and the other is unwillingly and unknownly.

Aristotle observes that a tragic hero suffers a lot misfortune on account of his ‘hamartia’- however this suffering may be mental or physical or both. In the case of Oedipus, we see that when Oedipus knows that he has killed his father and married his own mother, he reaches to the climax of his mental suffering or his tragedy. He blinds himself, thrusting the brooches of Jocasta into both his eyes, drawing a stream of blood from them. So, we may realize the peak of Oedipus’ suffering that may be an example of highest human suffering. Aristotle mentions that, observing the suffering of a tragic hero, in the mind of a reader or audience, pity for the hero and fear for suffering may be produced- he defines it as catharsis. Here, seeing the suffering of Oedipus, we fall in extreme sadness but feel pity and sympathy for him, because he has committed all the sins unwillingly. The last scene of the play produces much pity for him. Moreover we also fear and pray for not coming this kind of suffering or incidents in our life.

In conclusion, it can be said that Oedipus is an ideal tragic hero in the Greek tragedy. He is the conscious creation of Sophocles. Though he commits some sin, he wins our sympathy, because he is a victim of fate, circumstances and surroundings. His committing sin is not willful. For this reason, whenever he knows about his sin, he curses upon himself, and becomes blind of the sight of his eyes by which seeing his father, he has killed him, and has seen such parts of the body of his mother that should not be seen, and now he does not want to see the good things of the world. Therefore, though he commits sin unwillingly, mentally he is a pure man who is only a prey in the hands of destiny.