Oedipus Rex As A Tragic Hero

Q.        Do you think that hubris plays a significant part in the fall of Oedipus? (PU-2006)

OR

            Discuss Oedipus’ final choice and evaluate his character. (PU-1994)

Ans.:      Sophocles touches the Olympian heights of excellence in presenting vivid varieties of characters, occasions, scenes, moods, joys, sorrows frustrations, agonies and physical as well as psychological crisis.

Oedipus is a master creation of Sophocles' genius who comes upto the canons fixed by Aristotle for a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a distinguished person, who occupies a high position or has a high status in life and falls from prosperous circumstances into misfortune on account of a "hamartia" or some error of judgement. In Aristotle's view tragic hero should be a good man though not prefect. The fall of a bad character will not arouse any feeling of pity or fear whereas, the fall of a person who represents near perfection will be repugnant and horrible. In this way ideal tragic hero should neither be a paragon of excellence nor a deprayed villain. Aristotle also believed that the tragic hero should be true to type and consistent or true to himself and his catastrophe must be caused by an error rather than a deliberate crime.

Now, when one examines Oedipus on the criterion set by Aristotle one find that that he fulfills the requirements mentioned above. Oedipus is the son of a king and a queen, he is brought up by a king and a queen and he himself becomes a king. In this way he is a man of social eminence as well as he possesses excellent qualities of character, though he is by no means perfect. Yet we cannot say that his misfortune is due to any defect in his character rather it is an error of judgment (hamartia) which brings about his fall.

When the reader carefully and critically examine the character of Oedipus, it becomes quite vivid and clear that he is an ideal king as he treats his subjects as his own children. Once he saved the lives of the citizens from the clutches of a sphinx and now in the wave of pestilence they look towards him for guidance and help. He is a man who is highly esteemed by all because of his qualities. He is an able ruler, a father of his people, an honest and great administrator and a man of outstanding intellect. There is no doubt about the essential goodness of his character. He has full faith in the bond of family and hates impurity. Thus a man who is essentially a noble man should meet such ghastly fate is unthinkable and very painful.

But this is not a complete picture of Oedipus' character. Like an ideal tragic hero Oedipus is also not perfect because in spite of all these good qualities there are some irritants and the traits which cannot be approved. For example, he is hot-tempered and can be easily provoked. He quickly loses his temper with Teiresias when the prophet is reluctant to reveal the things he knows. He flares up and accuses Teiresias of hatching a conspiracy against him. Though, first he addresses him reverently but later on, he behaves like a ruthless tyrant who is out to pick up a quarrel without any consideration of its consequences. He is guilty of rash judgment in the case of Creon. It is really not proper to treat one’s trusted and tried kinsman like that. It all shows his arbitrariness, and rash vindictiveness.

An other flaw of Oedipus' character is that he is excessively proud of his intelligence. This feeling of pride may be the result of his success in solving the riddles of Sphinx. Self-confidence is a good quality but when it takes the form of over confidence and pride, it becomes disgusting and obnoxious.

But despite these faults and shortcomings it would be wrong to suppose that Oedipus suffers only because of this pride. He has committed heinous crimes but his pride is not the only direct cause of these crimes. He tried his level best to avoid the fulfillment of prophecies. It was in complete ignorance that he killed his father and married mother. His tragedy is a tragedy of errors, not of any willful action yet it is possible to argue that if he had been a little more careful, things would have taken a different shape. He might have avoided the quarrel on the road, if he had not been so short sighted he might have refused to marry a woman old enough to be his mother, if he had not been blinded by the pride of his intelligence in solving the riddle of the sphinx.

Actually Oedipus failed to realize that a man can solve the riddle of the Sphinx but he cannot solve the riddle of his own life. He wanted to know the whole truth but could not see that man cannot bear much truth. Thus if he had not pursued the investigations, he might have avoided the shock of discovery. Teiresias tried to conceal the truth and Jocasta also discouraged Oedipus to continue his investigations but Oedipus paid no heed to them. It was his insistence on the truth that led him to his tragedy. The oracle said that: Oedipus would be guilty of those sins but no oracle said that he must discover the truth. If there had not been any discovery surely there would have been no tragedy. No doubt, Oedipus has already committed the sins which make him guilty in the eyes of gods but the tragedy lies not so much in committing of these crimes as in his discovery of these crimes.

In conclusion, we can say that Oedipus is an authentic tragic hero in Aristotelian sense because his tragedy is caused by his own initiatives in discovering the truth. However, the manner in which Oedipus blinded himself after realizing his guilt and the manner in which he endured his punishment, raises him in our estimation. The final impression which we get of him is of massive integrity, powerful will, and magnanimous acceptance of a horrible fate. The spirit of Oedipus remains unconquered even in his defeat and that is the essential requisite for an ideal tragic hero as propounded by Aristotle in his poetics.

Points To Remember:

1.                  The greatness of Sophocles as a playwright.

2.                  Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

3.                  Oedipus is a king and thus comes upto the standard fixed by Aristotle for a tragic hero.

4.                  Meutal and Moral excellences of Oedipus.

5.                  But Oedipus is not a perfect man — he is short tempered and arrogant and this brings about his tragedy.

6.                  Though his flaw is not directly responsible for the crimes committed by him yet we can say that had he been a little bit careful he could have evaded his fate.

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