Yet, despite the efforts of both tragic heroes, fate wills them to face their disturbed realities. In O’Brien’s quoted recollection, he constantly resists-- resists going near the corpse, resists looking at it, resists thinking about the body of the old man through his reassurances, “I didn’t go,” “I didn’t even look,” and “I looked away.” The tragic hero attempts anything to push reality from his innocent mind in a similar manner to the fallen hero, Oedipus. Despite not being the murderer of the old man, O’Brien still conveys a tone of depression and guilt in his description of his “sickness” and of “greeting the dead.” Not to mention, the erratic narration indicates a sense of anxiety-- all from the downfall of O’Brien’s ignorance. Therefore, both O’Brien and Oedipus attain emotional trauma through altered perceptions of their respective realities as a result of learning the
Yet, despite the efforts of both tragic heroes, fate wills them to face their disturbed realities. In O’Brien’s quoted recollection, he constantly resists-- resists going near the corpse, resists looking at it, resists thinking about the body of the old man through his reassurances, “I didn’t go,” “I didn’t even look,” and “I looked away.” The tragic hero attempts anything to push reality from his innocent mind in a similar manner to the fallen hero, Oedipus. Despite not being the murderer of the old man, O’Brien still conveys a tone of depression and guilt in his description of his “sickness” and of “greeting the dead.” Not to mention, the erratic narration indicates a sense of anxiety-- all from the downfall of O’Brien’s ignorance. Therefore, both O’Brien and Oedipus attain emotional trauma through altered perceptions of their respective realities as a result of learning the