The Tragic Flaw Of Oedipus The King

In the beginning of the story, Oedipus came across as a selfish and arrogant man. It appeared that he only wanted to find Laius' killer for his own gains. For bragging rights. But, at the end, he is a broken man. He has learned he killed his father, slept with his mother and found his wife's (his mother's) dead body. His mistakes had caused her pain as well and his entire life was a lie. He was ashamed and blinded himself to add to his troubles. And, the left his children in shame. I felt sorry for him at the end. He could not escape his destiny and his life and his family's lives were all ruined.

“ I fall, I rise, I make mistakes, I live, I learn, I’ve been hurt but I’m alive. I’m human, I’m not perfect” (unknown). In the play Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, has been under the influence of a prophecy darkened by illusion and flaws which characterizes him as a tragic hero. He is adored and respected by his people, but he has inherent flaws in character or better described as hubris which is a negativity in personality that taints one's character. Though he displays integrity towards the end, the deeply rooted hubris portrays him a tragic hero.

Fate chose him to kill his dad, marry his mom, and discover it all in Oedipus Rex, Sophocles’ tragedy. Oedipus was so determined to save Thebes from the plague bestowed on them by Apollo. But little did he know that he was the source of it all. His constant reversal of fortune, neutrality, and suffering make him the perfect example of a classic Greek tragic hero.

At one time in our lives there is a moment that we may think of ourselves as better than someone or something else. There may also be a point when making a decision leads to a great error in judgment. In the play Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, both of these characteristics can be seen in the main character. These characteristics are known as tragic flaws. These flaws are known as hubris meaning excess pride, leading to overconfidence, and hamartia meaning errors and weakness in judgment. Both of these characteristics are the main reason of destruction and downfall in mankind and the tragic hero in this play. The tragic hero is unable to escape his misfortune that is destined to happen.

Hamartia is an alternative expression for “tragic flaw”, that signifies the fatal flaw leading to a collapse of a tragic hero. King Oedipus possesses a disastrous and negative defect, which is pride. To the unluckiness of Oedipus, he adhered plenty of it to himself throughout his lifetime. Pride is an extremely powerful quality of self-importance or opinion, thus; it eventually leads Oedipus to decease.

Evidence: “ How i weep for you -- I cannot see you now… just thinking of all your days to come, the bitterness, the life that rough mankind will thrust upon you… such disgrace and you must bear it all! Who will marry you then? Not a man on earth. Your doom is clear: you’ll wither away to nothing, single, without a child. (Line 1625-1645)

Oediupus’ tragic flaw is his ambition, his enthusiasm to know the full truth regardless of the consequences. This trait is exemplified near the end of the play when Oedipus urges the shepherd to reveal the full truth of his birth, even though he knows the truth may cause him misery, “And I’m at the edge of hearing horrors, yes, but I must hear!” (230). In this passage, Oedipus is insistent on having the full truth of his birth revealed to him, even though he suspects the terrible nature of it. Oedipus has the option to stop the shepherd, to tell him to say no more, to avoid hearing the horrors he suspects, but he willingly chooses to seek out the truth. His ambition is a tragic flaw because he chooses to hear the truth despite knowing that

There was an oracle told to Oedipus when he was younger that he would kill his father and wed his mother. Jocasta tells Oedipus that prophets are not correct all the time. She went on to tell him that she once bore a child to Laius, and Apollo told them that this child would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. At that point Oedipus was scared because of the oracle told to him when he was younger. It is ironic that Oedipus could have this much guilt placed on him in this short amount of time. He replied to her, "As I listen, my queen, my thoughts went reaching out and touched on memories that make me shudder..."(lines, 759-760). Oedipus has just reacted to what Jocasta, his wife/mother, has told him. He is terrified because he believes that he may have been the one who killed Laius. Oedipus goes on to ask Jocasta multiple questions about who, what when and where this all happened. After every answered question Oedipus reacted with more and more grief. Every question showed more and more evidence that Oedipus had been the murderer of Laius. When the messenger

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.

When discussing and analyzing a playwright by a greek dramatist one has to keep in consideration the patriarchal society of the time and the specific character traits the author is trying to portray. This idea is supported by E.R Dodds when he aptly tries to disprove the first two heresies he encountered when asking how the Oedipus Rex attempts to justify the ways of God to man (Bloom 18-24). These considerations will help in understanding the meaning behind the play. However, before getting to the meaning of the playwright one needs to probe Aristotle’s argument on what creates a tragic hero in the first place. “Aristotle finds the end of human endeavor to be happiness” which is a result principally from a “steady and comprehensive intellectual

Oedipus the King is a poem that is very heartbreaking and cruel because of the many things that happened to Oedipus had nothing to do with him. He was not responsible for anything bad that happened to him in his life and I feel like his life was already planned out from before he was even born. His life was not fair because he did not even take any decisions for himself about how he wanted to live and was treated like a puppet. So many horrible stuff were happening around Oedipus and he had no idea about any of them. They are all very wicked and twisted stuff that no one would even dare to imagine them or think about them. Oedipus did not have a tragic flaw because everything was already predestined to happen and nothing would change even if he wanted to do something about it. That is what makes this poem even more tragic because he did not have any control about his own life or even about himself. This poem is about a king that falls in love and even marries his own mother without knowing that she is his mom and kills his dad without knowing he is his dad. That was all part of a curse that was told to his dad. The curse said that the child of Laius and Jocasta was destined to kill Laius and marry Jocasta.

621 ln. 149-150) after Creon tells him why they stopped searching for Laius’s killer. Dramatic irony is present when Oedipus tries to skirt the horrible prophecy of him killing his father and coupling with his mother, because in fleeing Corinth to avoid murdering Polybus, he is actually taking the correct path to fulfill the prophecy. Again his overconfidence and pride contributes to his impending doom; in believing that he has outwitted the gods he challenges his fate. Although he has enough reverence to the deities not to assume himself to be an equal with the gods, but greater than them it is clear through the word usage that Oedipus perceives himself to be of a greater importance than the lesser mortals that surround him “One of you summon the city here before us, tell them I’ll do everything. God help us, we will see our triumph-or our fall” (p. 621 ln. 163-165). He is conceited to think that he can shape his own destiny and the gods punish him for this arrogance.

The circumstances of Tiresias’ visit, cause Oedipus to reflect on his past. Informed by Jocasta, he fears that the prophecy imposed by Apollo on himself may have to do with Laius’ murder. “I think I’ve just called down a dreadful curse upon myself--I simply didn’t know!” (Sophocles 203), he explains referring to the curse he imposed on the murderer of Laius. Oedipus’ fear that Apollo's prophecy stating he will “couple with his mother... [and] kill his father” has come true (Sophocles 205), is not powerful enough to keep him from seeking the truth. Even reassurances from Jocasta disavowing the prophecies aren’t influential enough to get Oedipus to drop the issue. Oedipus’ headstrong attitude is best summed when he exclaims: “What--give up now, with

A man has many defining characteristics. Some characteristics are positive, and others negative. There are times a potentially positive characteristic may cause his eventual downfall. This concept could be directly related to the story Oedipus Rex. Aristotle once said something to the effect that the tragic hero falls into bad fortune because of some flaw in his character. Essentially, he is telling us those characters, like Oedipus, have flaws that, under normal circumstances, would be a beneficial characteristic. However in this case, his character caused his demise. The defining characteristics of pride and determination can be attributed to the downfall of Oedipus.

Oedipus follows Aristotle's theory of tragedy by depicting a hero who loses his crown because of his pride.