Oedipus Tragic Hero Essay

In a tragedy, the tragic hero usually does something that will slowly destroy him. In the play by Sophocles, “Oedipus Rex”, the main character, Oedipus, is a tragic hero. He does a good deed that will in turn, make him a hero. This hero will reach his height of pride in the story, and in the end the action, which he had previously committed will return and destroy the man who was once called a hero.
Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx and that made him king. The city of Thebes had gone downhill and was under a horrible plague. The people of Thebes respected Oedipus for saving the city from the Sphinx. He was admired by the city of Thebes and married a newly widowed Queen, Jocasta. Jocasta’s previous husband was killed by highwaymen/robbers. In the end we find out her husband …show more content…
Oedipus sent Creon to ask Apollo how to save the city. Oedipus wanted to restore his city to what it used to be. He went out to find who was responsible for the homicide of Laius.
Oedipus discovered that the child of previous King Laius and his Queen Jocasta was sent away to die as a child. He was chained by his ankles to the top of a hill. As he looks for the reason for their child being sent away he figures out that the child was prophesized to murder his father and marry his mother. He became worried that the child may be him. He had been named a hero but had been doing the bad things that the oracle said he would do.
Jocasta and Laius didn't want what the Oracle's said to come true. They tried everything they could to go against it, but by trying to avoid this they ran straight into the prophecy. Oedipus had killed his father, married his mother, and had children with her without even knowing it. Oedipus was ashamed for these things and he gouged out his eyes out with Jocasta’s brooches so he could not see the people who looked down on him. His pride and his anger is what brought him