Oedipus Rex Research Paper

Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, is undoubtedly a tragedy. Many things can be described as a disaster. However, according to the definition of a tragedy by Aristotle, there are five main criteria for this. First, the play has to include a tragic hero, preferably of noble stature. Second, the tragic hero must have a tragic flaw. Due to that flaw, the hero falls from grace, power, or death. Due to the fall, the tragic hero will discover something and have a moment of remorse. Finally, there must be catharsis in the minds of the audience. Oedipus clearly meets all of these five criteria throughout the play as I will explore below. The tragedy is of Oedipus, a good man who becomes king and is loved by his people but falls into hopeless abomination. His fatal ‘tragic flaw’ is his anger. He leaves his home …show more content…
The audience may experience relief at the fact that their eyes are still intact, while feeling grief for Oedipus’s agonizing loss of sight. As discussed above, Oedipus Rex successfully fits the description of a tragedy. It contains the fundamental elements that make up a tragedy as described by Aristotle. The plot itself fits this simply due to how outrageous it is. As it is about a man who killed his father, married his mother, and gouged his own eyes out. There is much more to it however, and the character Oedipus displays many traits of a tragic hero. Besides the plot, Oedipus is an extremely tragic character because he is a great man with some morals and with a commitment to find out the truth. But like a typical tragic character, he has a tragic weakness. His tragic weakness is that in the confidence of what he knows, he becomes too careless and disrespectful towards the gods, the fate that the oracles have disclosed for him. He disobeys any inner voice and wisdom with regards to fate and destiny, which all ties together to display an extremely tragic