We
know that a tragic hero usually possesses high birth and high social standard.
In case of Oedipus, we see that, he is the son of “Laius”, the king, and “Jocasta”, the queen, he is brought up by Polibus, the king of
Corinth, and “Merpe”
the queen. Later he has become the king of Thebes and marries the queen of
Thebes and begets children. The people of Thebes considers him as the saviour
and father.
Actually,
Oedipus is the hero of the tragedy of fate or destiny or nemesis
based on the oracle of Apollo that Oedipus would kill his father and would
marry his own mother. All the characters of the play have tried desperately to avoid
the occurrence what they could not do. Laius and Jocasta have tried to escape
the happenings by sending away their new born child to a distant mountain. Oedipus
himself tried to escape the undesirable situation by leaving Corinth,
but all in vain.
Here
the characters seem to be the puppet of destiny. Whatever they do, wherever they go are
predesigned by destiny, an unseen mysterious power.
A tragic hero is a man of good character and excellent
qualities. In case of Oedipus, we see that, he is very brave
and benevolent king. Once he has saved the peoples of Thebes from the riddle of
Sphinx by his intellect. He
is full of patriotic feelings. When he comes to know that, until and unless the
killer of Laius is detected and punished no betterment of country would be
done, he tries his best to detect the killer even, when he comes across that,
he himself is the killer, he banishes himself from the country. So he is very
good man and king. As he himself says:
“I grieve for you, my children
Believe me, I know,
All that you desire of me, all that you suffer.”
Again he says:
“Their plight concern me now; more than my life”
A tragic hero, according to Aristotle, usually has a Hamartia
or tragic flaw or some defect of his character. Consequently,
though Oedipus the King is a tragedy of fate or nemesis, we discover some
hamertia or tragic flaw in Oedipus, though it is a tragedy of fate. The author
of Oedipus was much ahead from time, he painted his characters with the touch
of reality and liberty of choice.
As a
king he should have been very cool and calculative in stead of being arrogant,
haughty, desperate, rough and tough. So his tragic fallow is mainly his hot temperament.
We can give a number of examples:
Firstly: he has killed a man who is almost equal aged
like his father. Then his treatment with Crion and with the blind
prophet was very rough. As he says:
“It has – but not for you;
No, not for you, shameless and brainless sightless, senseless sot!”
Again, he puts very severe doubts on Crion, a
very loyal, faithful, patriotic man in Thebes. As Oedipus says:
“I doubt your eloquence will teach me much. You are my bitterest enemy; that I know.”
He seems very angry, when he speaks with the shepherd.
So he is terrific anger is his tragic flaw.
If we
analyze Oedipus from a different perspective, we see that, he has a tendency to
undergo the truth. He is always in a desperate mood to know the unknown, to
explore the unexplored, to see the unseen. This kind of tendency is a highly
modern man quality.
We know that, a tragic hero suffers a lot
due to his hamartia. In Oedipus the King , Oedipus suffers a lot.
When he knows he has killed his father married his own mother, he reaches the
climax of his sufferings and made his eyes blind. His sufferings can better be
understood by his own speech:
“Alas! All out! All known, no more concealment!
O Light! May I never look on you again,
revealed as I am sinful my begetting, in my marriage, shedding of blood.”
Here
seeing the suffering of Oedipus, we fall in extreme sadness and we feel petty
for him.
Moreover, we find a strong analogy between Hamlet and
King Oedipus. Both of them are the hero
of the tragedy. Hamlet suffers a lot due to his Hamartia as Oedipus does.
We can also analyze Oedipus with the light of
psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud. To him, the sons become attracted to
their mother, the daughters become attracted to their father. This is what
happened in Oedipus and Freud calls it “Oedipus
Complex”
At last we can say that, Oedipus, the most artistic
creation of master playwright Sophocles, is a unique tragic hero not only in Greek tragedy but also in world
tragedy. He wins the sympathy of all the readers because he is the victim of
fate as well as the victim of circumstances.
This paper is
prepared for you by Talim Enam, BA (Hons), MA in English.
If you have any
query, suggestion or complain regarding the article, please feel free to
contact me at +8801722335969. You can also follow me at www.fb.com/talimenam and www.fb.com/enamur and visit my blog http://talimenam.blogspot.com
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simply fine
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