Oedipus Rex as a tragic hero

Q: Consider Rex as a tragic hero in Aristotelian sense?

Q: What qualities of Aristotelian tragic hero Rex confirms?

Ans
The term ‘Tragic Hero’ is used for Greek literature and especially it is
associated with great three dramatists : Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
Aristotle has broadly defined the term with special reference to Greek Tragedy. He
believes that a tragedy must be an imitation of life but it must be a serious story
having strength of being complete in itself. It must have the ability to awoke ‘Pithy
and fear’, as well as the feelings of, ‘Catharsis’ in the readers. Sophocles' Oedipus
Rex was written around 429 B.C. and since then it is considered to be the best
example of tragedy. Aristotle called it the greatest example of tragedy in his
important work Poetics and many other critics throughout the centuries have agreed.
One of the main reasons the work is so revered is because of its portrayal of its main
character Oedipus, who is considered by many to be the classic example of a tragic
hero.
 Aristotle believes and considers ‘Oedipus Rex’ the model tragedy. In his
‘Poetics’, he appreciates it because of its exemplary well-constructed plot. ‘Oedipus
the King’ is an excellent example of Aristotle's theory of tragedy. The play has the
perfect Aristotelian tragic plot consisting of peripeteia, anagnorisis and catastrophe;
it has the perfect tragic character that suffers from happiness to misery due to
hamartia (tragic flaw) and the play evokes pity and fear that produces the tragic
effect, catharsis (a purging of emotion). It is not beyond the extent of saying that
Oedipus is the classical example of the most tragic heroes of Greek literature.
Richard B. Sewell says: “Oedipus of Sophocles can be judged by Aristotle’s
criteria. He answers to all the Aristotelian requirements.”

The very first requirement for a tragic hero is that the protagonist must be
‘flawed or erroneous’ in judgement. In Aristotle's conception, a tragic hero is a
distinguished person occupying a high position, living in prosperous circumstances
and falling into misfortune because of an error in judgment. He should have the
amalgam of goodness and badness. He is neither good nor vicious but has lack of
good judgement. Using Oedipus as an ideal model, Aristotle says that a tragic hero
must be an important or influential man who commits an error in judgment, and who
must then suffer the consequences of his actions. The tragic hero must learn a lesson
from his errors in judgment, his tragic flaw, and become an example to the audience
of what happens when great men fall from their high social or political position. In
the case of Oedipus Rex, he undergoes sufferings and “Anagnorisis” which means
realization of the truth or a change from ignorance to knowledge. But this
“Anagnorisis” is not because of any depravity in his character but from “Hamartia”
which means tragic flaw or error of judgment or horrible acts of ignorance leading to
tremendous suffering and a fall from his high status and his punishment should
exceed his faults. Moreover, the “Peripetia” which means the downfall or reversal of
fortune of a tragic hero should arouse feelings of “Pithy and Fear” among the
audience.
 According to Aristotle the Tragic Hero should be from Royal class,
aristocratic family means he should be a King or Prince. Oedipus has towering
personality and blue blood. He is highly esteemed and respected among his people.
He solved the Sphinx’s riddle and saved all the citizens from the monster. The priest
glorifies the king as a man, “Surest in mortal ways and wisest in the ways of God”.
As a king he is concerned about the welfare of his people.
“Not one is as Sick as I,
Each of you suffers in himself alone,
But my spirit groans for the city
For myself, for you.”
He is a man of integrity, an honest and great administrator and an outstanding
intellect. His self-importance and narcissism are a symbol of grandeur. No doubt,
“Fate and Circumstance” play a very important and negative role in moulding his
life and take him to his tragic end, but there is more than one tragic flaw in his
character.

The hero contributes to his own destruction or downfall. Aristotle observed

that the hero is not passive. As a man of action, the hero will act in such a way as to
cause his own downfall. Oedipus’ first tragic flaw is his “Pride.” and “self-
righteousness”. He gives too much value to his own intelligence. The Greeks had a
distinct word for such a situation and that is “Hubris”. His excessive pride and
strong ego result in ignoring the fate designed by the gods, and his belief that he can
solve any problem and overcome his fate. Oedipus is blind to truth and refuses to
believe Teiresias’ warnings. Teiresias is simply trying to make him realize the truth
but Oedipus is too proud to realize any truth. He is not ready to accept that he can be
the responsible for such a heinous crime. He is charged emotionally and although he
is clever, yet he does not stop questioning without caring or understanding what
Teiresias is talking about. He never sees the things as they really are. Rather he only
sees them as he wants to see them. He thinks that he can change his fate but does not
realize what fate has in store for him. This pride leads Oedipus to believe him equal
to gods. This illustrates how the fatal flaw results in Oedipus causing his fate to
become a reality. Walting opines “Oedipus brought his fate upon himself by a
combination of pride, ignorance and determination.”
 In contrast to Shakespearean Tragedy which is considered to be “Character is
destiny”, the Greek Tragedy is generally believed to be the tragedy of fate. “Destiny
is character” here. Both fate and character play inevitable role in the tragedy of
Oedipus. Oedipus is depicted as a victim of his fate or destiny. He cannot escape the
destiny that the gods have chosen for him. He is forced to kill his father and marry
his mother as the oracles have foretold. Underlining the element of fate in Oedipus
Rex, McLeish explains that the scar on Oedipus' ankle, which has given him his
name, symbolically means that fate has marked and claimed him his own. Also, his
bound feet in his infancy, when he was abandoned in a desert, foreshadow his
helplessness after the revelation of Apollo's oracle on Laius. Furthermore, his own
character cannot be put aside in this context. It is because of his character as a great
discoverer of truth and a man determined to find out what he has decided to discover
that Oedipus meets his tragic end. In this case, the free will works in the range that
fate allows it.

When we analyze the character of Oedipus, we discover that, in spite of

much natural greatness of soul, he is, in one vital respect, the exact antithesis of
Aristotle's ideal man. He has no clear vision which enables him to examine every
side of a matter with unclouded eyes, and to see all things in due perspective; nor has
he a calm wisdom which is always master of his passions. Oedipus can see but one
side of a matter — too often he sees that wrongly — and it is his fashion immediately
to act upon such half-knowledge, at the dictates, not of his reason at all, but of the
first feeling which hap-pens to come uppermost. His is no deliberate vice, no choice
of a wrong purpose. His purposes are good. His emotions, his thoughts, even his
errors, have an ardent generosity which stirs our deepest sympathy. But his nature is
plainly imperfect, as Aristotle says the nature of a tragic hero should be, and from
the beginning he was not likely to attain perfect happiness.

Aristotle also defines a tragedy as one that increases awareness and self-
knowledge on the part of the tragic hero. The hero gains recognition from his
experience. Recognition is a learning process a hero must go through. Recognition is
the product of what happens to the hero. This point is extremely important to the
meaning of tragedy. If the hero does not gain recognition, his suffering is in vain and
the play is not a tragedy. This recognition occurs too late for the hero to prevent or
escape reversal. In his book titled The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, Haigh claims
that the carefully arranged chains of events that come to pass in Oedipus' life all take
him one step closer to his catastrophe and whatever he does ultimately makes him
sink even lower in his wretchedness.

Another factor which is heatedly discussed among the critics is whether

Oedipus is a puppet in the hands of gods who ordained his doom or he deserves his
misfortunes? Most of them are agree with Aristotle that the hero should not be too
virtuous, nor should he be evil: "there remains, then, the character between these two
extremes—that of a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is
brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty. He must be one
who is highly renowned and prosperous—a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or
other illustrious men of such families. Their fate (often death or exile) establishes a
new and better social order. Not only does it make the viewer aware of human
suffering, tragedy illustrates the manner in which pride (hubris) can topple even the
strongest of characters.

One last interesting factor is how we look at Oedipus’ ultimate blindness and
demise. Aristotle articulates in his Poetics that ‘tragic hero dies a tragic death…the
hero must courageously accept his death with honor. We can say that Oedipus’
tragedy is the result of his good qualities than his bad ones. His love of Thebes, his
love for his people and his love of truth leads him to tragedy. He is so honest with
himself that he inflicts the punishment of self-blinding. He says,
“What use of my eyes to me,
who could never see anything pleasant again?”
He even insists Creon to banish him from the city. E.R. Dodd says, “Oedipus is great
because he accepts the responsibility for all his acts, including those which are
objectively most horrible, though subjectively innocent.”

Oedipus Rex is, no doubt, a great classical tragedy which meets all the
requirements of a Tragic Hero laid down by Aristotle in his “Poetics”. That is why Aristotle
and subsequent critics have labelled Oedipus “the ideal tragic hero”. His dynamic and
multifaceted character emotionally bonds the audience and they develop a great respect and
emotional attachment to him. Thus, there is no doubt that Oedipus fits Aristotle’s definition
with startling accuracy, though Aristotle developed his ideas long before Oedipus rex.