Oedipus Rex



Oedipus Rex, a tragic victim of fate, easily meets the criteria of the

tragic hero. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero can not be extremely

virtuous or evil, they must be on the middle ground. This is true of Oedipus,

in the eye of the public, he is a concerned, caring individual, but he is also

capable of atrocities. He does have the blood of his own father on his hands.

The fact that he did not know that he was killing his own father places him

in the median between virtuous and evil.

A tragic hero must also have a frailty, or tragic flaw. This is also true

of Oedipus. The fact that he has murdered his father and fathered children

with his mother are sufficiently adequate to qualify him as an individual

with a tragic flaw. He also seems to be a rather arrogant individual, another

characteristic capable of being a tragic flaw. This can be derived from the

way Oedipus speaks.

Oedipus also goes through a reversal of fortune, another characteristic

of a tragic hero. It look as if he has a solution to the problem Thebes faces,

when in fact he is the problem. This is hidden from him, when he is made

aware of this, and the atrocities he has committed, he endures great

suffering. His wife and mother commits suicide, and due to the emense

emotional burden this situation puts upon him, he gouges his eyes out. Due

to his level of suffering, the audience or reader feels a sense of pity for

Oedipus, which is another characteristic of a tragic hero.

His flaw causes him to commit an atrocity, the emotional and physical

consequences of which destroy him, causing the audience