Sophocles Oedipus

The play, Oedipus the King by Sophocles presents a grim hamartia caused from a terrible deed of long ago. Oedipus the protagonist is the powerful King of Thebes and held of high estate by the people of Thebes. As the terrible deed of Oedipus’s becomes apparent to both Oedipus and the City of Thebes his tragic flaw is slowly realized. The play will show “tragic power resides in human failing, hamartia, constantly underpinning any sense of the inevitable” (Walton). The play will show the author’s view of a tragic hero as seen in the play Oedipus the King does exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

Sophocles was well-known as a master of tragedy. Sophocles was born at Colonus, not far from Athens. Sophocles wrote over 100 different dramatic stories. “Oedipus the King” is one of his great stories that has a mix of heroics to it and yet, we feel sorry for Oedipus and his fate. We ask ourselves after reading “Oedipus the King” who was this man and why did he think he could run from his destiny of fate? Was Oedipus responsible for his final fate and could he have changed his fate? We are going to talk about Oedipus and how his life unfolds from his birth. Then you, the reader will decide if you feel empathy for Oedipus if this story was about a tragic hero.

It is wise to be careful of what you look for, because you might not like what you find. This would have been excellent advice for the main character in Sophocles drama, Oedipus the King. However, the drama was written as a result of Sophocles life and the influence of the humanistic culture in which he lived. Throughout Sophocles life, he gained military knowledge as the son of a wealthy armor manufacturer and received an excellent Greek education with emphasis on Homeric poetry (textbook). Furthermore, Sophocles was very involved in politics and served as a treasurer, a general, and inevitably as a member in a group for policy formation (textbook). Although Sophocles was deeply enmeshed with the political world of his time, his true calling in life was his writing of Greek tragedy, during the Golden Age movement of 477 B.C. to 431 B.C. (Berkhofer). Unsurprisingly, it is his portrayal of the Greek culture that has led to Sophocles unofficial title of the embodiment of Greek Spirit (Whitman, 4). Now, Sophocles’ Greek culture was humanistic and focused on the achievements of individuals, primarily their moral and psychological difficulties within the human experience. Although, philosophy and religion are a part of humanism, Sophocles demonstrated the political and social characteristics of ancient Greek humanism in his drama, Oedipus the Kings (Menning). Therefore, one can understand the life and humanistic culture of Sophocles through the illustration of the

In the opening scene, Oedipus reveals that he really, truly cares about his people. “Oedipus’ first words, and the very fact that he has appeared in person to meet a delegation of Thebans, show that he is a man of compassion” (p.3). He reveals that he is a smart leader that has control of his emotions. He is able to be strong for his people, while still remaining transparent, and tell them the truth about the plague affecting their city; this shows the relationship he has with his community. The Thebans gathered outside the palace to ask him to take action and he is willing to do whatever he can to save Thebes. Oedipus seeks to find justice and the cause of the plague that is killing the people of Thebes so he can put an end to it.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is about Oedipus, a man doomed by his fate. Like most tragedies, “Oedipus the King” contains a tragic hero, a heroic figure unable to escape his/her own doom. This tragic hero usually has a hamartia or a tragic flaw which causes his/hers’ downfall. The tragic flaw that Sophocles gives Oedipus is hubris (exaggerated pride or self-confidence), which is what caused Oedipus to walk right into the fate he sought to escape.

Sophocles ' play “Oedipus Tyrannus” is an enigma. His play includes incest, murder and self-enlightenment all leading into the main theme of fate. Athenians believed that fate is not left up to man, but that is provided solely on the whims of the gods. Because of his dramatic approach to his plays Sophocles was considered one of the most brilliant and creative writers of his time.

In all the passages that have been written through history on how an excellent man should behave, one writing stands out from all of them. Aristotle’s, The High-Minded Man. This manuscript explains that for any play to be truly considered a tragedy, its hero must meet Aristotle’s standards for a high-minded man. In the tragedy of Oedipus Rex, by Sophacles, Oedipus clearly meets the requirements to be called a high-minded man. Oedipus is expressive about his thoughts, exceptionally important in society, and lastly an honorable man.

In the midst of the downfall of the City of Thebes, is the entrance of a great leader who

Oedipus is a play that shows the relationship between Oedipus and the prophecy. In Oedipus Rex,the theme of a prophecy and sin are evident in the plot and overall story line. Oedipus tells the story of when Oedipus, the king of thebes, finds out who his actual father is. Oedipus is about when Oedipus kills his father, and marrys his mother and has five kids with her. Once he finds this out Jocasta, his mother, hanges herself with her bed sheets, and Oedipus pocks his eyes out. Oedipus is shown to be about the relationship with humans and sin. It's about the journey that most humans face. Oedipus shows themes like the cross-roads where Oedipus kills his father. The Cross represents the cross roads that Oedipus experiences in his life. It's representative

Oedipus the King is a famous play written by the renowned author Sophocles and first acted out back in 429 BC. It is the second of three plays written by Sophocles that dealt with Oedipus; the first one being Oedipus at Colonus and the last one being Antigone. This play relates the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes King of Thebes while unwittingly fulfilling an old prophecy that said that he would kill his father Laios and marry his mother Jocasta. He embarks on a journey to try and find the man who killed his father, and promises to banish this man from Thebes forever. In the end, he will learn the ugly truth; he is the one who killed his father, and the woman he considered to be his wife is actually his mother. This play is a classic tragedy, considering that Oedipus’ own faults will lead to his tragic downfall at the end of the play. One of the important aspects of this play that makes it so good, although unknown to many, is the fact that this is a piece of climatic drama, which means that most of the action and of what constitutes Oedipus’ misery in the end occurred before the play even starts. In fact, the prophecy that will end up being the focal point of the play was set on Oedipus when he was a little boy, which is long before the action of the play even started. This is where the Chorus comes in handy. According the “Glossary of Dramatic Terms”, the Chorus is “a masked

An ancient Greek Philosopher as well as a Scientist named Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander the Great and a student of Plato. Aristotle defines tragedy as imitations of life consist of action with a serious lesson to convey and purges emotions into the audience which leads to catharsis of these emotions. “Oedipus Rex” written by Sophocles is an Athenian tragedy which practically fulfills the Aristotelian theory of a tragedy. Oedipus, the King of Thebes is a noble man with great personality whose life is controlled by the ill-fate he is born along with the tragic flaw that is excessive pride and confidence that he can make his life best, but cannot overcome the ill-fate and boundlessly struggles. The tragedy “Oedipus Rex” viewed through

The philosopher Aristotle wrote his work Poetics as a deconstruction of aesthetics approximately 50 years after the death of Sophocles, the author of Oedipus Rex. Aristotle was a great admirer of the works of Sophocles and is said to have considered Oedipus Rex to be the perfect tragedy and the basis for his thoughts in Poetics. He defines tragedy as, “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions…Every tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which

Sophocles' Oedipus Rex As the plot in Sophocles' famous play Oedipus Rex unfolds, many aspects of the relationship between ancient Greeks and their gods are revealed. It demonstrates that the people could call upon the gods in times of distress, how the gods could cause widespread disasters if a population displeased them, how arrogance and ignorance of the gods' powers would lead to disaster, and most importantly, how the gods were believed to

Throughout the interactive oral, I was able to gain more knowledge about Greek culture and how it functioned. The connections with Greek culture in Oedipus Rex helped me to understand more about Greek culture and allowed me to understand their perspective of culture.

The Greek drama Oedipus Rex is clearly a tragedy. It definitely meets the five main criteria for a tragedy: a tragic hero of noble birth, a tragic flaw, a fall from grace, a moment of remorse, and catharsis. Interestingly, even though Oedipus the King came before Poetics, Sophocles’ play illustrates Aristotle’s rules for classical drama. Oedipus the King particularly displays a tragic emotion, a tragic character, and a tragic fall. Aristotle also writes that such a drama ought to have a change "accompanied by a reversal, or by recognition, or by both". Aristotle also points out terms such as catharsis, which can be said that is the purification of one’s soul. He argues in his Poetics that catharsis is achieved through