Sophocles’ Oedipus Exemplification of Aristotle’s Tragic Hero Essay

Sophocles’ Oedipus Exemplification of Aristotle’s Tragic Hero
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Sophocles’ Oedipus Exemplification of Aristotle’s Tragic Hero.
Introduction.
In his Poetics series of books, renowned Greek Philosopher Aristotle defines a tragic hero in drama as someone who should never seem to be a good man and who transitions from a happy life into misery. He continues to argue that this hero should neither be a bad man who becomes good. To achieve the perfect tragic hero in drama, the hero should be a standard, intermediate character (Bruening, 1997), meaning someone who seems to live everyday life with an equal taste of good and evil. To arouse the feelings of fear and pity in the audience that brings about the classification of the story as a tragedy, this hero must undergo misfortune, which he ideally brings upon himself by the wrong decisions and error of judgment he makes and not by vice or depravity. This hero is famous and well-known in the play. In his enjoyment of prosperity and excellent reputation, the hero makes wrong decisions that catastrophically lead to his downfall (Reeves, 1952, pp. 172-173). Aristotle claims such a plotline to be the perfect story of a tragic hero.
Unfortunately, in the story of Oedipus, the King of Thebes, written by Sophocles, Oedipus has often been mistaken as a tragic hero according to the traits given in the Poetic books of Aristotle. The circumstances around the plot of this story showcase that Oedipus was reasonably not in the know-how of his actions. With this in mind, the writer of this essay strongly believes and wants to justify why Sophocles’ Oedipus does not exemplify Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero because Oedipus is an influential man in power that habitually continues to be flawed and make mistakes. The justification of this thesis statement will be based on two broad topics with specific subsections that try to argue out why the story of Oedipus does not follow the outlined reasons that Aristotle gives to make Oedipus the King a tragic hero story.
Body
General Idea
* Tragedy
In Aristotle’s poetics, he identifies tragedy as an imitation of a complete and severe action that is often of a certain magnitude and creates feelings of pity and fear in the audience reading a poem or watching a drama show (Bruening, 1997). He argues that the person who undergoes troublesome times creates pity and sadness and brings them upon themselves. Therefore, if these persons made their choices right, they should not have experienced the terrible actions they faced.
This tragedy is not the case in Oedipus’ story. From the first act, Oedipus is not a good man or hero. This cruelty is because he uses the influence and power he has as a king to seek after the thing he is warned about repeatedly over and over again. First, he is warned by the prophet Tiresias not to pursue the issue, but he does not heed to the sayer’s words. He becomes furious about the matter and seeks to know more about it. When he is told the truth, he does not believe it and perceives that Tiresias tells him the truth (Sophocles, 1715, p. 23). A prophecy is revealed. Secondly, he finds a witness to the crime that led to the death of the previous king, Laius. Oedipus summons the witness to know who killed the king and forcefully urges him to reveal the truth about what ensued when King Laius was killed (Sophocles, 1715, p. 48). This use of force clearly shows that Oedipus was not a good man or the so-called hero as thought in the context of Aristotle’s tragic hero.
* Death
In Aristotle’s point of view regarding the death of a tragic hero, he believes and argues that the demise of the hero should invoke pity which is aroused by the unmerited misfortune that the hero faces and fears since this has befallen someone like us (Aristotle & Butcher, 2015, pg. 13). To some extent, this is true because the people who undergo these misfortunes due to external factors, especially the role of the villains in their stories, make the audience pity this tragic hero when he meets his end.
This death is different in Oedipus’ case. He inflicts this upon himself. After the pursuit of truth, he realizes that indeed he had gone against all the laws that governed their society during his time, and the anger he had inside him led to this action of piercing his eyes, killing himself gradually with time (Sophocles, 1715, p. 70). Whether his end in the drama, poem, or story is tragic or happy, a true hero upholds society’s moral standards on his character. If suicide is a vice, especially in this case, the “hero” becomes immoral.
At times, Oedipus’ act of stabbing his eyes with Jocasta’s dress pins is considered to arouse pity and fear among the audience as per Aristotle’s view on this concept. Therefore, most audiences feel like Oedipus was a perfect example of a tragic hero based on Aristotle’s Poetics. But the true motive is often understated. Even the worst people in society usually arrive at a point of no return. The wicked actions that they have engaged in over a long period finally weigh heavy upon them, creating fear that leads to suicide and other activities that endanger their lives (Huizen, 2021).
* Morality
As stated in the introductory part of this paper, Aristotle believed that a tragic hero often has an intermediate kind of personage. This personage means that the tragic hero is not virtuous and just at all times....