Aristotle's Tragic Hero with Grave Flaws and Doomed Destiny in Sophocles Oedipus the King - Case Study Example

Aristotle’s Tragic Hero with Grave Flaws and Doomed Destiny in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King May 4, Aristotle’s Tragic Hero with Grave Flawsand Doomed Destiny in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King Not all heroes are heroes without a fault; some are even antagonists underneath. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King portrays a tragedy, wherein Oedipus simultaneously plays as the hero and the antagonist. Aristotle explains that a tragic hero is part of a complex plot and a member of the royal family. This tragic hero loses everything in the end because of his tragic character flaws (hamartia) and because he cannot change his wretched destiny. The paper determines if Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. Oedipus fits Aristotle’s tragic-hero description because he comes from a high social position and supports a complex plot, where he goes through the stages of recognition and reversal, due to his hamartia and his irreversible and uncontrollable fate. Oedipus represents the life of a tragic hero because he is a person of “high estate” who wants to implement moral leadership (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, p. 945). Oedipus is the beloved king of Thebes. One of his priests calls him, “Great Oedipus, O powerful King of Thebes!” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Prologue 16). His priest and people go to him and beseech for his help because they see him as a great king. In addition, Oedipus is not only a king, but a venerated hero. The priest remembers that he is the “liberator…long ago,” which makes him the “noblest of men” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Prologue 50, 48). Having “high estate” also refers to what Adkins (1966) described as having “goodness or virtue” (p.78). Oedipus is a tragic hero because he was greatly admired for his goodness, after he saved them from the Sphinx, before he loses his exalted social position. At the same time, Oedipus wants to lead morally in his kingdom. After he hears from the Oracle of Delphi that, in order to free Thebes from plagues, they have to remove Laios’ killer in their midst, he asserts that he shall find the murderer. He tells his people: “You shall see how I stand by you, as I should, / To avenge the city and the city’s god” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Prologue 137-138). He expresses that he stands as a good king who will look after the welfare of his city. Moreover, he says that he wants to avenge the city, which means that he seeks justice too. Oedipus aims to be a just leader who wants to capture and punish the criminal. He shows that a tragic hero becomes one because he comes from a dignified social and moral stature, particularly in the eyes of his citizens. Besides high social status, Oedipus is bound to a complex plot that is more than a simple tragedy. Scheepers (2005) explained Aristotle’s idea of a tragic plot. Aristotle did not find a “simplistic” tragic plot as a tragedy because real tragedy happens, when heroes fall due to their hamartia or error (Scheepers, 2005, p.137). Oedipus is not a bad man who goes through a tragedy, or a good man who experiences a single misfortune. The plot of his life is suffused with misery because of his errors and unchangeable fate. The Choir sums up Oedipus’ doomed destiny: “This is the king who solved the famous riddle / And towered up, most powerful of men. / No mortal eyes but looked on him with envy, / Yet in the end ruin swept over him” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Exodos 294-297). The Choir demonstrates the complex plot of a beloved king who rises so high, before he plunges to utter loss. In addition, Oedipus’ tragedy is worse than others who simply lost something in their lives because his adversities are beyond his life, as he passes them to his children. He is principally concerned of his daughters. By having an incestuous father, they are no longer marriageable: “Then, whom / Can you ever marry? There are no bridegrooms for you, / And your lives must wither away in sterile dreaming” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Exodos 265-267). Oedipus’ suffering magnifies in the face of the anguish of his children that he also caused. A tragedy that infects one’s innocent progeny is truly a saddening, maddening tragedy. Oedipus is a major force who turns the tide of multiple misfortunes for him and his family. Apart from being part of a complex tragic plot, Oedipus goes through the stages of “recognition and reversal” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, p.946). Recognition refers to “discovery” (anagrosis) (p. 946). Recognition takes place when Oedipus realizes that he was the child whom his mother wanted to be killed, in order to avoid her fate. The moment of truth arrives when the shepherd reveals to Oedipus that he is Laios and Jocaste’s own child: “O Light, may I look on you for the last time! / I, Oedipus, / Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his marriage damned, / Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Scene IV 71-75). Oedipus is a tragic hero who finds out the most dreadful truth in the most dreadful way. After recognition comes “reversal” (peripeteia), which refers to “reversal in… fortunes” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, p. 946). Reversal is not a simple overturning of events, but situational irony, where an action gets an opposite effect of what is intended to happen (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, p. 946). The Chorus underlines that Oedipus wants a good ending for all, as he persistently searches for the truth. The truth, however, ends all that is good for him: “O Oedipus, most royal one! / The great door that expelled you to the light / Gave at night- ah, gave night to your glory” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Ode IV 32-34). The tragic situational irony has occurred: the truth sets the city free from its suffering, but it also sets into motion the worst kinds of suffering for Oedipus. Oedipus wants peace and prosperity for his people; he loses his and so much more. Aside from experiencing the harrowing processes of recognition and reversal, Oedipus fits Aristotle’s idea of a tragic hero because he exhibits hamartia through three grave flaws, the first of which is his immoral behaviors. He may not have done these depraved acts consciously because he does not know that he is the son of Laios and Jocaste, but he does them all. These immoral acts consist of murdering his father, having incestuous relations with his mother, and bringing demise to his people (as the murderer who lives amongst them), who trust him as a good man. Oedipus wails as he cries over his shameful life: “Ah, the net / Of incent, mingling fathers, brothers, sons / With brides, wives, mothers: the last evil / That can be known by men: no tongue can say / How evil!” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Exodos 179-182). He realizes the extent and depth of his sin to the gods and mankind. He is more than a murderer. He also practices incest and gives shame to his people by being their leader, when, in truth, he took away their rightful king. Oedipus’ second flaw is his extreme emotionality. He does not know how to act with rationality when facing extremely troubling challenges. For instance, when he hears from the Delphi that he will kill his father and marry his mother, he runs off without thinking of his actions. He narrates to Jocaste what happened to him after he ran away from Corinth. He says that he came across a chariot where the “groom leading the horses / Forced [him] off the road at his lord’s command,” and as the chariot went to him, he struck it in his “rage,” and when an old man came out (Laios), he tried to strike Oedipus, but he struck the man first (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Scene II 281-283). Rage has blinded him from being able to reasonably act. Barstow (1912) blamed Oedipus for his emotional reaction to his problems: “He has no clear vision which enables him to examine every side of a matter with unclouded eyes… nor has he a calm wisdom which is always master of his passions” (p. 3). Oedipus also contributes to his tragedy because he left his family too swiftly and he let his rage get the better of him when he killed Laios and his entourage. He knows his role in his tragedy because, though he realizes that he cannot escape his fate, “the blinding hand was [his] own” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Exodos 113). He has been blind to patience and self-control. Oedipus’ inability to control his emotions and to apply logic, when it was most needed, significantly led to his descent to disgrace. The third and most fatal flaw of Oedipus as a tragic hero is hubris. Oedipus falls from grace because of his hubris (pride). Oedipus shows hubris through his extreme confidence in his ability to save Thebes again and his easy disrespect for the elderly and family members. Oedipus believes that he can find the killer because he is the savior of Thebes. He tells the Chorus who prays for redemption from their suffering: “Listen to me, act as the crisis demands, / And you shall have relief from all these evils” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Parodos 52-53). Oedipus shows vanity in seeing himself as a God who can relieve people from their difficult troubles. Cesereanu (2009) argued that Oedipus overestimated his self-importance. He said: “…the hero has unlimited faith in himself, and promises to solve the mystery, cursing Laius’s murderer and simultaneously cursing himself, unwittingly” (p. 324). Besides an extreme sense of self-importance, Oedipus also exhibits hubris when he disrespects Teiresias and Creon. Oedipus rejects the truth from Teiresias. He asserts that truth has power but not for a “sightless, witless, senseless, mad old man!” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Parodos 153). Oedipus forgets that he is talking to an esteemed, old seer. If he cannot accept the seer’s words, then he can do so respectfully because of the old man’s age and social status. Instead, he rages against Teiresias and curses him because the latter has hurt his pride. In addition, Oedipus shows the extent of his hubris, when he lashes out on Creon. He accuses Creon of conniving with Teiresias, so that he can steal his crown. Oedipus does not even care to listen to Creon’s side. He tells Creon that even if he is wrong in his allegations, he “must rule” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Scene II 113). Oedipus shows his power where he insists that he can never be wrong, and that, if he is wrong, he will remain King. In other words, Oedipus wants Creon dead without facts, but he will not make himself accountable for injustice. Hubris has infected Oedipus’ mind, and for that, he is a tragic hero. Finally, Oedipus exhibits the life of a tragic hero because of his irreversible and uncontrollable fate. Oedipus realizes that fate cannot be stopped or changed. His parents tried to change their fates and failed. He also tries to do the same and fails even more miserably. He knows that the gods have dark plans for his life: “Apollo. Apollo. Dear / Children the god was Apollo. / Be brought my sick, sick fate upon me” (Sophocles, 425 B.C.?/2013, Exodos 110-112). McCollom (1957) described Aristotle’s tragic hero as a victim of “fate” or external authority (p. 53). Oedipus tries to avoid his fate by running away from his family. However, his fate brings him directly to his biological father, and afterwards, to Thebes. Oedipus lives a tragic hero’s life because he is doomed from the very start. Furthermore, the Chorus also reminds everyone that no one can rejoice in one’s destiny because nothing is certain in human life: “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, 425 B.C.?/2013, Exodos 298-301). The Chorus is saying that good fortune is hardly possible in real life for the fate has predetermined humanity’s fortunes. Adade-Yeboah, Ahenkora, and Amankwah (2012) asserted that Oedipus the King is a “celebration of the divine force. The force is at its most rigid, unyielding and unpitying peak. This fact is revealed as the plot unfolds” (p. 13). Indeed, the strongest force is unseen- the fate that sets the wheel of misfortunes that Oedipus cannot break away from. He was born to enjoy good fortune, but he was also born to lose all of it before he dies. The gods can always take what they give. Oedipus fits Aristotle’s concept of a tragic hero because he is a king who has virtually everything- power, wealth, and the love and respect of his family and his people- but in the end, he loses everything and becomes the vilest criminal. Oedipus falls from his high social stature because of his tragic flaws and because he cannot fight his fate. The tragedy lies in his errors and ill-fated hopelessness. His end was far from what he imagined: the truth that he so indefatigably pursued killed his joy and blessed him with curses that will last all throughout his children’s lives. Oedipus has lost everything. He did it to himself. And the gods made sure of it. References Adade-Yeboah, A., Ahenkora, K., & Amankwah, A.S. (2012). The tragic hero of the classical period. English Language & Literature Studies, 2(3), 10-17. Retrieved from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ells/article/view/19851/13086 Adkins, A.W.H. (1966). Aristotle and the best kind of tragedy. The Classical Quarterly, 16(1), 78-102. Barstow, M. (1912). Oedipus Rex as the ideal tragic hero of Aristotle. The Classical Weekly, 6(1), 2-4. Cesereanu, R. (2009). Orestes and Oedipus: Differences, similarities, contaminations. Caietele Echinox, 17, 323-333. Kennedy, J., & D. Gioia (Eds.). (2013). Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing (7th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Publication. McCollom, W.G. (1957). The downfall of the tragic hero. College English, 19(2), 51-56. Scheepers, I. (2005). Fate and divine working in Sophocles Oedipus Rex. Akroterion, 50, 137-144. Sophocles. (2013). Oedipus the king. In J. Kennedy & D. Gioia (Eds.), Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing, (7th ed., pp.949-986). New Jersey: Pearson Publication. (Original work published ca. 425 B.C.?) Read More