Oedipus A Tragic Hero

A Drama play tells an emotional story normally with tragedy involved. Sometimes there is a hero, but the hero in the play is different from what a person would expect from a hero today. If a person today were to describe a hero from one of the drama plays they would probably just describe them as the main character not really a hero. Some drama plays even have a tragic hero whose fate is normally far worse than they deserve. Sophocles’ Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero because he was a King who fell, he had a tragic flaw, and he unwittingly played a part in his own undoing. Aristotle definition of a tragic hero is a person falling from “high estate” with a tragic character flaw (Kennedy and Gioia, 2016, p. 858). Sophocles’ Oedipus was a king who fell, which is the first part of being a tragic hero. Oedipus was born into a royal family and taken out to be exposed as a baby, because it was prophesied that he would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother (Sophocles’ Oedipus). A shepherd was told to take care of it, but he had mercy on him and gave him to another royal …show more content…
Oedipus was royal from birth. He fell from a high position in life, which is part of what makes him a tragic hero. He had farther to fall than most people. Oedipus had a tragic flaw, which was his inability to believe that he controlled his destiny not some random gods. His other tragic flaw was that he could not let things go even when he knew the truth could hurt him. Another thing that points to him being a tragic hero is that he was a good guy who tried to avoid the prophesy and ended up forcing it to come true by accident. He unknowingly helped in making the prophesy come true by running away from it. Oedipus accepted what had happened and that he was going to die in the end. This all shows that he is a tragic