Azim Hossain Imo

Masters in English Literature

Master in English Language Teaching (JU)

Q:What is “hamartia” ? How Sophocles treated Hamartia in

Oedipus Rex ?
Q: What are the tragic flaws of Oedipus in Sophocles’ “Oedipus
Rex” ?
Q: What are cause of Oedipus’s Demise in Sophocles’ “Oedipus
Rex” ?
Hamartia is a personal error in a protagonist’s personality that brings
about his tragic downfall in a tragedy. This defect in a hero’s
personality is also known as a “tragic flaw. Aristotle used the word
in his “Poetics” where it is taken as a mistake or error in judgment.
According to the Aristotle, the tragic character of a good tragedy
should not fall due to either excessive virtue or excessive
wickedness, but due to hamartia. Oedipus, the tragic character in
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, certainly makes several such
mistakes. He is egoistic, arrogance, reckless, overcurious, stubborn
and outrageous .
Oedipus’ character flaw is ego. After being successful in making
Thabes free from the curse of Sphinx, his pride boosted more. He
becomes overconfident. He thinks himself; he is the one and all are
none. This is made evident in the opening lines of the prologue
when he states "Here I am myself--you all know me, the world
knows my fame: I am Oedipus". His conceit is the root cause of a
number of related problems. Among these are recklessness,
disrespect, and stubbornness.  

Oedipus displays an attitude of recklessness and disrespect

throughout the play. When he makes his proclamation and no one
confesses to the murder of Laius, Oedipus loses patience
immediately. Later, he displays a short temper to Tiresias, the
prophet: "You, you scum of the earth . . . out with it, once and for
all!"
Later he becomes suspicious that Creon and Tiresias are the
mastermind of killing of Lius. He strongly suspects the prophet
which makes him disrespectful. Out of temperament and disrespect,
he says Tiresias, "Enough! Such filth from him? Insufferable--what,
still alive? Get out--faster, back where you came from--vanish!" He
also shows disrespect to the Shepherd for his reluctance of reply.
Oedipus certainly has no respect for the man’s age when he tortures
 Azim Hossain Imo
Masters in English Literature
Master in English Language Teaching (JU)

him. Oedipus’ cruelty indeed brings his own demise out of the
shepherd: "You’re a dead man if I have to ask again”
He is a outrageous man. Way of treatment with Creon, Tiresias and
the Shepherd carry that evident. He kills five aged man including his
father out of rage. Even after passing many years, he details that
incident with full of rage. “ I killed, killed them all” he says.
 
If an unwillingness to listen may be considered stubbornness,
certainly Oedipus would take advice from no one who would tell
him to drop the matter of his identity, among them Tiresias, the
shepherd, and even Jocasta. Even after Oedipus thinks he has
reprieve from the fate he fears when he hears that Polybus is dead,
he does not have the sense to keep still. "So! Jocasta, why, why look
to the Prophet’s hearth . . . all those prophesies I feared . . . they’re
nothing, worthless". He is overcurious which starts with finding his
parental identity and ends with revealing his own identity.
After his recognition and reversal, Oedipus exclaims "The hand that
struck my eyes was mine, . . . I did it all myself!" He is not only
referring to his self-infliction, but also the seriul of events that led to
his demise. Creon later comments that "it’s better to ask precisely
what to do".  

Each of these events, when isolated, may be excused as a simple

mistake. However, when viewed as a whole, a pattern emerges
among these cumulative mistakes and this pattern is hamartia as a
whole. Oedipus’s hamartia may most directly be his mistakes, but
ultimately all these mistakes flow from his ego or his pride.