OEDIPUS

Oedipus A Tragic Hero

Outline

Introduction

The play “Oedipus the King” is a play based on tragedy, which has been written by Sophocles.

Thesis Statement

Oedipus is the ideal tragic hero and he exemplifies the definition of Aristotle's tragic hero.

Argument

The argument and the case is briefly presented in this section. An oracle warned Laius King of Thebes, that he would be assassinated by his own son; determined to avoid this fate, Laius tied the feet of his newborn son and left him to die on a desolate mountain.

Analysis

In this part, Oedipus is being analyzed and for being the ideal tragic hero as defined by Aristotle. As, Aristotle in "Poetics", writes that the tragic genre is essentially based not only on the pathetic part, on two key elements of the narrative: the cognition and the peripeteia.

Aristotle, Poetics, 11

Aristotle identifies the Oedipus the king of the Sophocles tragedy more successful, as the peripeteia and recognition occur simultaneously and both have as their object the same character: Oedipus.

Conclusion

"Oedipus Rex", according to Aristotle, is the Greek tragedy par excellence. Composed by Sophocles unknown date, has attracted over the centuries and involved many tens of generations of scholars debate about its interpretation.

Oedipus A Tragic Hero

Introduction

The play “Oedipus the King” is a play based on tragedy, which has been written by Sophocles. This play, first performed in the year 429 BC. (Knox, 1998), was one of the three Theban plays was of Sophocles', and comes in the first place in the internal arts, followed by Colonus and then Antigone. This play called one of the best Greek plays that have been produced up-to date. In the play, Oedipus was a man, who had a number of flaws and his flaws were the main reason for his downfall.

Greek tragedy, befell the fate of men; the feelings of horror and pity that tragedy inspires outweighed by the sense of the fatal. Almost all the classical writers of tragedies claim the concepts of nobility, heroism, beauty and esteemed truths, and uplifting characteristics of the genre. Sophocles frames built its way its themes and characters simultaneously arouse pity and fear, this led Aristotle and other Greek critics to regard him as the greatest writer of tragedies. His Oedipus the King provides a synopsis of tragedy.

Thesis Statement

Oedipus is the ideal tragic hero and he exemplifies the definition of Aristotle's tragic hero.

Argument

An oracle warned Laius King of Thebes, that he would be assassinated by his own son; determined to avoid this fate, Laius tied the feet of his newborn son and left him to die on a desolate mountain. A pastor picked up the boy and gave him to Polybus, king of Corinth, who gave the name of Oedipus (swollen foot) and adopted it as his own son (Sophocles & Grene, 2010). The boy did not know he was adopted, and when an oracle proclaimed that he would kill his father, he left Corinth. During his journey, met and killed Laius, believing that the king and his companions were a gang of ...