Aristotle, the philosopher, establishes the standards for Greek tragedy research in his book "Poetics." He asks basic concerns by connecting "pity," "fear," and "catharsis." Why are we drawn to ill-fated characters that struggle horrifyingly? Aristotle is capable of determining the order in which events would occur: At first, the hero attracts us to him/herself by endearing acts, and we become emotionally attached; then, we begin to fear for the protagonist when his/her actions place them squarely in the face of danger; and finally, the hero suffers a tragedy, and we experience an ultimate sense of sorrow in sympathy with the hero. As a result of these attachments, we undergo a catharsis or purgation to renew our spirits and release tension. In Catharsis in Healing, Ritual and Drama, Thomas J. Scheff defines it as ‘thrill-seeking aimed at resolving earlier, painful unfinished experiences (Scheff, Thomas J). To meet such a high standard, and make Aristotle’s theory true, a tragic hero must be a well-developed character like ‘Oedipus’ in Sophocles’ work, ‘Oedipus the King’. Oedipus makes the audience realize all three emotions in which light he stands out as a perfect tragic hero. By analyzing how he achieves and supersedes these considerations of a tragic hero, we get the legitimacy to refer to him a typical tragic hero.
We need to respect the hero as a larger and better version of ourselves. The birth of Oedipus as the real son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes, earns him respect on the basis that his parents are royalty. Again by virtue of himself falsely believing to be the son of King Polybus and Queen Meroe of Corinth, he becomes twice royal. When Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx, he gains additional admiration. According to Harold Alderman in his essay ‘Oedipus the King: A Hermeneutic Tragedy,’ the riddle solver is the riddle itself. The puzzle as postured, "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?" (Sophocles., and Paul Roche) is correctly answered by Oedipus, the son of two kings giving the answer as “man”. This obviously is testimony of a well educated Corinth man in that man crawls while young, walks on two feet in youth and middle age and eventually crawls in old age (Alderman, Harold). For freeing the city, Oedipus is rewarded by Creon dominion over the place. Therefore, his nobility is derived from several sources and this makes many to admire him and have an endearing attachment.
In Aristotle’s school of thought, hamartia is important in the realization of heroes such as Oedipus. His stubbornness and quest for truth was one of his greatest flaws. The “hamartia” is more of a “mistake” than a distinctive imperfection and to him all ill-fated heroes have it, yet it is something not overly exposed in their character. If it were to be so, most likely we would start being disrespectful and ultimately fail to feel pity for them. The same scenario would occur were the hero to undergo a sudden accidental or spontaneous failing. Therefore, the heroes ‘hamartia’ has to come from something deeply entrenched in their virtue. That is, a weakness that is neither distinctive nor random but rather a general human failing – a weakness. He says:
“Such being my nature, I cannot become something else, I cannot give up the search for my origin, I will know who I am.” (Sophocles., and Paul Roche)
This need is what takes him to the Delphi in search for answers. His insistence on uncovering the killers of Laius leads him to the truth about himself. Everyone tries to discourage him from his inquest yet he remains persistent. The old shepherd wearily says, “God help me, but I am about to tell you dreadful tidings” but Oedipus responds: “And I am about to hear them: but hear them I must”. Tiresias tries to refuse to tell him the truth, and in its place advises Oedipus to abandon his pursuit. “You bear your burdens, I’ll bear mine. It’s better that way.” Tiresias says. Oedipus wants none of that, he taunts him and threatens him with dire consequences and gets him to disclose the awful truth. Jocasta tries frequently to stop him but with no success. By doing these things out of free will, Oedipus shapes his own destiny. His lack of knowledge on his real identity sends him right into the hands of fate. Albin Lesky captures this in his essay “Oedipus: An analytical Tragedy” when he says:
“The King of Thebes is not a faint heart, who awaits his fate passively; he goes boldly to meet it and grapples it with a burning passion for the truth and a readiness to suffer that makes him one of the greatest figures of the tragic stage.”
Oedipus, for all his nobility, had no idea of his real identity. Nonetheless, there was nothing he could do or could have done to prevent this. As a fact, he did not have any responsibility for this twist of fate. We, as the audience in this story, fear for him as nothing he can do can change such an unfortunate turn of events.
Hubris, inflated conceit makes Oedipus a fierce and fearsome ruler of his land, one who stands out among his peers in Oedipus the King. At the start, he is noble, wise, reputable, loving and concerned for his subjects but his self-righteousness does not take long to come out. In the opening monologue line eight he says, "Here I am – myself – you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus."(159). At a time when Thebes faces horrible hardships, he distances himself from the problems so much that he commands Creon to speak to the crowd on what the oracle has said. The fear that his glory might be taken away makes him accuse Creon of conspiring with Tiresias the blind prophet to seize power. His vow to find Laius killers is for him to look better. He declares, “I’ll start again – I’ll bring it all to light myself!” (167) this gives him a monopoly in getting the killer. When he kills a man during his flight out of Corinth asserting self-defence as the reason, it is through his entourage that we learn the victim was actually harmless. Solving the riddle of the Sphinx gives him the confidence to imagine he can solve the mystery of Laius killer as well. This exaggerated pride is the marker of judgement errors for which Oedipus compensates for with shame and neglect at the end. Although hubris commands the story line, the magnitude of suffering burns it all out making the hero, a tragic remnant, with the audience standing aside in fear.
The reversal of fortune is captured in Aristotle’s Poetics as peripeteia, “a change by which the action veers round to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity” (Aristotle.). When Oedipus receives from the messenger news of his lineage, it is supposed to bring comfort to him, but then the opposite is happens. The Emissary says, "Polybus was nothing to you, [Oedipus] that’s why, not in blood" (Sophocles 1113). As the message trickles that Polybus is not his father so does the realization come that he killed his father and married his mother. It is partly because of this that we see the famous hero in him melt away giving way to an infamous hero. This sudden change from high expectation to high hopelessness makes the champion in this story a tragic hero. To us, we start feeling and sharing in his pain.
In Greek mythology, the goddess of revenge ‘Nemesis’ usually sought vengeance against people who showed arrogance (hubris) before the gods and from us pity as we have a mortal understanding of the heroes circumstance. The excessive pride of “King Oedipus" makes him have the courage to go against the gods. When told by the Oracle of Delphi that he will go against the natural by killing his own father and marry his mother, he attempts to defy this prophecy by moving from Corinth to Thebes. It is on the way that unknown to him, he murders his father Laius, and proceeds to marry his own mother the queen of Thebes after successfully solving the Sphinx's riddle and ascending to the throne. Although they seem innocent sins, Oepidus becomes full of pride so much that contradicting the gods does not bother him much. It is this arrogance that is his nemesis and one that fixes him to the tragedy that summarizes his life.
Aristotle in Poetics was of the opinion that pity and terror have to be evoked in tragedy. The ultimate aim of this is to purge our hearts of these feelings (catharsis). In a tragic work, the ultimate end provides relief which is aesthetic. In "Oedipus the King" our natural experiences are brought to light so is nature and human psychology. When the priest describes the sorry state of Thebes, Oedipus expresses his sympathy and tells the priest that his heart is burdened by the suffering of the people. The chorus raises the feeling of pity and fear when it says; "With fear my heart is riven, fear of what shall be told. Fear is upon us."
When Oedipus resolves to find the killer of Laius, there is some relief for us but it is also
terrifying for its fierceness. Pity and terror are also raised when Teiresias speaks to Oedipus in a veiled but alarming manner nonetheless referring to the King as “husband of the woman who bore him,father-killer and father supplanter” and openly calling him a murderer. Although Jocasta and Oedipus try to downplay the oracles, the truth slowly begins to dawn on them and the pity and fear within them climaxes as they face the reality of their unnatural relationship. The Chorus sings "All the generations of mortal man add up to nothing." This in us arouses our deepest sympathy at their sad fate.
The act of Oedipus blinding himself generates lot of sympathy for him. As opposed to killing himself, he gets a kind of alternate death that magnifies his suffering. He views death not just as an inability to see but also a spiritual and intellectual blackness. As such he is dead, not physically but on the basis that his suffering cannot end. The concluding chorus tells of a man who has to be punished by the gods even after death. The end of the play in no way ends the suffering of Oedipus but for us, it gives a sense of conclusion to what we see as too high a price to pay for a mortal soul. This fusion of continued suffering and closure in a way convinces us to believe that his pain is appropriate and natural, our catharsis. His exceptional downfall nonetheless is pitiful and one that is testament for ages to come.
A tragic hero is defined by three parameters. The character of Oedipus if vibrant and many-sided and this bonds with us emotionally. His weaknesses make us fear yet continue respecting him. His horrifying punishment makes us feel so sorry for him given that there is not much we can do. Though written long before Aristotle developed his ideas, the character of Oedipus by Sophocles fits the definition of ‘a typical tragic hero.'
Works Cited
Aristotle. Aristotle's Poetics. 1st ed., New York, Hill And Wang, 2000,.
Alderman, Harold. "Oedipus The King: A Hermeneutic Tragedy". Philosophy And Literature, vol 5, no. 2, 1981, pp. 176-185. JHU, doi:10.1353/phl.1981.0012.
Aristotle. Poetics. 1st ed., Lanham, Dancing Unicorn Books, 2016,.
Lesky, Albin. “Oedipus: An Analytical Tragedy” Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 11
Scheff, Thomas J. Catharsis In Healing, Ritual, And Drama. 1st ed., [Lincoln, NE], Backinprint.Com, 2001,.
Sophocles., and Paul Roche. The Oedipus Plays Of Sophocles. 1st ed., New York, Penguin, 2004,.
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