Oedipus’s Status in “Oedipus Tyrannus”
Oedipus Tyrannus is a play written by Sophocles; it interprets a plot of classical Greek myth. The oracle told Thebes’s ruler he will be killed by own son, which then will marry his mother. Parents decided to kill the child, Oedipus, but the slave did not fulfill the order. The man also found out about the prophecy and tried to avoid it. But his attempts led to totally opposite results: Oedipus killed his real father and married mother as a new ruler of Thebes. When he found out the truth, the man blinded himself. The play ends on the scene, where Oedipus waits for the oracle, who should decide his fate. The work is a classic example of the Greek tragedy; and Oedipus is a canonic tragic hero. While character’s life has examples of heroic actions, Sophocles mentioned them only on the background. Final scenes, when Oedipus blinds himself and asks Creon to kill him, are tragic, not heroic. The protagonist of the play fully corresponds to signs of the tragic hero, created by Aristotle and complemented by other ancient Greek philosophers. According to Aristotle, this type of character has three major features: a noble birth, a main mistake with destructive consequences (hamartia) and attempts to make piety efforts. …show more content…
The character also should cause a specific viewers’ reaction: people develop an emotional attachment to the hero, start to fear for his fate and finally, after the destructive events take place, feel pity for the person. “Through these emotions the audience came to a catharsis, or ‘cleansing’” (Fainlight and Littman xxii). Oedipus has all these qualities. The man is the son of Laius, the former ruler of Thebes. He has even the “triple” noble status, as he was raised as a child of the king of Corinth and replaced real father as a new Thebes’s king. This nobility creates a basis for the character’s tragic status. According to Aristotle, people should respect such hero and perceive him as a “better” or “larger” version of themselves. This attitude helps to develop an emotional attachment with the character. Hamartia is the main frame of the play’s plot. Oedipus made a major error, when he decided the prophecy mentioned his foster parents: “Hearing such awful things, I fled, using the stars as guides to make sure I always moved away from Corinth” (Sophocles 34, l. 794-796). This decision led Oedipus to Thebes and made him to fulfill the prophecy. Aristotle highlighted the hamartia should not be intrinsic to character’s personality, in other way it would be difficult for the audience to feel pity for him. Oedipus is represented as a good and smart man. He was ready for self-imposed exile, to save people who he thought were his real parents. The man demonstrated high intellectual abilities by solving Sphinx’s riddle. The mistake happened because of “ignorance [and] human weakness” (Fainlight and Littman xxii), which are parameters of the hamartia, according to Aristotle. Oedipus did not know his true origin (ignorance), and his parents were not able to tell him the truth, when the issue was raised. Sophocles did not mention, was their decision caused by a fear to lose son’s love or deprive him of his rights for Corinth’s throne, but both this options are signs of the human weakness. Tragic heroes should be virtuous, but not to the highest degree. Oedipus fully corresponds to this parameter. He was a decent ruler of Thebes and likely really cared about townspeople: “The misery of each is for himself alone, none other. But my soul groans for the whole city, for each of you as well as for myself” (Sophocles 4-5, l. 62-64). The man expressed his readiness to fulfill every gods’ order to free Thebes of the plague. At the same time he demonstrates his virtuousness is not perfect. Oedipus shows his short temper, that became the major cause of the tragedy in his life, during the conversation with Creon. Without any additional evidences, the king blamed his kinsman in attempts to depose him, basing his opinion only on unpleasant words of Teiresias. “What a stupid plan – without
Oedipus Tyrannus is a play written by Sophocles; it interprets a plot of classical Greek myth. The oracle told Thebes’s ruler he will be killed by own son, which then will marry his mother. Parents decided to kill the child, Oedipus, but the slave did not fulfill the order. The man also found out about the prophecy and tried to avoid it. But his attempts led to totally opposite results: Oedipus killed his real father and married mother as a new ruler of Thebes. When he found out the truth, the man blinded himself. The play ends on the scene, where Oedipus waits for the oracle, who should decide his fate. The work is a classic example of the Greek tragedy; and Oedipus is a canonic tragic hero. While character’s life has examples of heroic actions, Sophocles mentioned them only on the background. Final scenes, when Oedipus blinds himself and asks Creon to kill him, are tragic, not heroic. The protagonist of the play fully corresponds to signs of the tragic hero, created by Aristotle and complemented by other ancient Greek philosophers. According to Aristotle, this type of character has three major features: a noble birth, a main mistake with destructive consequences (hamartia) and attempts to make piety efforts. …show more content…
The character also should cause a specific viewers’ reaction: people develop an emotional attachment to the hero, start to fear for his fate and finally, after the destructive events take place, feel pity for the person. “Through these emotions the audience came to a catharsis, or ‘cleansing’” (Fainlight and Littman xxii). Oedipus has all these qualities. The man is the son of Laius, the former ruler of Thebes. He has even the “triple” noble status, as he was raised as a child of the king of Corinth and replaced real father as a new Thebes’s king. This nobility creates a basis for the character’s tragic status. According to Aristotle, people should respect such hero and perceive him as a “better” or “larger” version of themselves. This attitude helps to develop an emotional attachment with the character. Hamartia is the main frame of the play’s plot. Oedipus made a major error, when he decided the prophecy mentioned his foster parents: “Hearing such awful things, I fled, using the stars as guides to make sure I always moved away from Corinth” (Sophocles 34, l. 794-796). This decision led Oedipus to Thebes and made him to fulfill the prophecy. Aristotle highlighted the hamartia should not be intrinsic to character’s personality, in other way it would be difficult for the audience to feel pity for him. Oedipus is represented as a good and smart man. He was ready for self-imposed exile, to save people who he thought were his real parents. The man demonstrated high intellectual abilities by solving Sphinx’s riddle. The mistake happened because of “ignorance [and] human weakness” (Fainlight and Littman xxii), which are parameters of the hamartia, according to Aristotle. Oedipus did not know his true origin (ignorance), and his parents were not able to tell him the truth, when the issue was raised. Sophocles did not mention, was their decision caused by a fear to lose son’s love or deprive him of his rights for Corinth’s throne, but both this options are signs of the human weakness. Tragic heroes should be virtuous, but not to the highest degree. Oedipus fully corresponds to this parameter. He was a decent ruler of Thebes and likely really cared about townspeople: “The misery of each is for himself alone, none other. But my soul groans for the whole city, for each of you as well as for myself” (Sophocles 4-5, l. 62-64). The man expressed his readiness to fulfill every gods’ order to free Thebes of the plague. At the same time he demonstrates his virtuousness is not perfect. Oedipus shows his short temper, that became the major cause of the tragedy in his life, during the conversation with Creon. Without any additional evidences, the king blamed his kinsman in attempts to depose him, basing his opinion only on unpleasant words of Teiresias. “What a stupid plan – without