King Oedipus As A Tragic Hero

Introduction
A tragic hero refers to an individual of noble birth who is either heroic or has heroic qualities. It is believed supernatural forces or gods determine a person’s fate and the tragic hero is destined to experience great suffering or destruction. Despite the fate that tragic heroes have been assigned to, they struggle against it and it is this conflict that the audience admires. Adade-Yeboah, Kwaku, and Adwoah (p. 12) state that Aristotle defined a tragic hero as a man who is neither deprived or a saint, he does not have extraordinary righteousness or virtue and he is not perceived are wicked or evil. An example of a tragic hero is Oedipus, a man of good fortune and impressive reputation. The play about King Oedipus is a story of a royal king who was once ignorant but later gained knowledge which leads to his misfortune.
Oedipus is a Tragic Hero …show more content…
He is described as an individual with ideal traits and impressive personality that made him a great king, but his moral disposition was flawed resulting in his tragedy. From the story, it is evident that it is the struggle against the fate which brought evil into his life that resulted in his tragic experience. As he struggles he invites the tragedy he had struggled to escape. The name Oedipus in Greek means “swell foot” it is a description of his swollen feet. Three days after his birth, his parents threw him away become the Oracle had foretold he would marry his mother after killing his