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What is the tragic flaw of Oedipus the King?

Of your two choices, pride or anger, it is pride that comes nearest to identifying
the tragic flaw of this character. The ultimate cause of Oedipus' downfall is his
unwillingness to accept his fate.

What are the main characteristics of a tragic hero?

The tragic hero is a character of noble stature and has greatness. ...

Though the tragic hero is pre-eminently great, he/she is not perfect. ...

The hero's downfall, therefore, is partially her/his own fault, the result of free
choice, not of accident or villainy or some overriding, malignant fate.

What does it mean to be a tragic hero?


A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to
his/her own destruction. In reading Antigone, Medea and Hamlet, look at the role of
justice and/or revenge and its influence on each character's choices when analyzing
any judgment error.

Oedipus is a man of high social standing and is a "hero" since he embodies


the qualities of the people of his land (though his true royal identity is hidden
from him since he was adopted), he attempts to do the right things at great
cost to himself, and he does put too much emphasis on his own abilities, ie,
he is arrogant.
He leaves his home to avoid the prophecy, only to fulfill it by killing his father
and marrying his mother.
He vows to find the killer of his father at all costs, even though he doesn't
realize the murderer is himself.
He is too arrogant to admit his errors and attempts to take it out on the blind
soothsayer.
The result, then, is the prophecy fulfilled and Oedipus blinding himself before
wandering aimlessly through the land.
And to add to that, you might see Oedipus' pursuit of the "murderer" in the
oracle as an interesting reflection of the status of a tragic hero. Oedipus is
arrogant enough to think that he can solve the riddle and find the murderer by
himself: but of course, he is the murderer. He wants to untie the puzzle, but he
actually ends up pulling apart his own life and security. Again, perhaps a tragic
hero is a combination of good intentions, fervent pursuit of a noble ideal, at
huge personal cost.

That totally depends on your definition of "tragic hero". The definition of tragic
heroes and of tragedy itself is a hugely contentious issue about which very
few scholars agree - and so, of course, you have to define your terms before
you can even begin to answer this question.
If you go by Aristotle's "Poetics" (the most famous text written about Greek
tragedy), Oedipus (in Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex") is given as an exemplar of

the tragic hero. He is a man of high standing socially (King of Thebes),


intellectually (he is the great solver of riddles) and morally (he is determined
to find the murderer and end the plague on his people).
Throughout the play his quest to find the murderer described by the Oracle is
made with the best possible intentions: only Oedipus is a man who has made
a mistake ("mistake" is the best translation of "hamartia" which is often
misunderstood as meaning a personal "tragic flaw" - not what Aristotle wrote
or intended). Is Oedipus' mistake to be too fervent in the pursuit of truth,
thereby revealing what (as Teiresias says) would be best left covered? Or is it
to act too rashly towards an old man at a crossroads?
One interesting way to think about tragic heroes in Sophocles is by using an
adjective Sophocles applies to all of them: "deinos" meaning both wonderful
and terrible. For Oedipus, it might just be his virtue that brings him crashing
down.

Compare Oedipus with Othello as tragic heroes.


Define one quality of a tragic hero, and compare
the two protagonists on that point.
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Obviously, Oedipus conforms more to the ideal tragic hero in that he is born into nobility:
he is both prince and king of Corinth and Thebes. Othello, on the other hand, is a former slave
who achieves greatness through military and oratory means.

Both heroes are involved in domestic tragedies: their tragedy comes from within their
marriages. Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother, while Othello kills his wife. As such,
beds are very important symbols. In Oedipus Jocasta hangs herself on the bed, while
Desdemona is strangled there. However, the bed never appears on the Greek stage (that is
sacrilege). In Othello, it is a major stage prop.

Both heroes suffer a reversal, but Oedipus' is caused by himself. Othello has a villain that
causes Othello's reversal. Iago is the major difference here. Oedipus has no villains,
and Othello clearly does. As such, Iago's role drives the action of the play in Othellomore than
the tragic hero. He serves as the role of fate and the oracles. He also plays the role of Chorus, as
he talks incessantly to others and the audience.

Obviously, the endings are vastly different. Oedipus achieves a kind of nobility in his
tragedy: he chooses to blind himself instead of suicide. Because of this, he achieves a victory
over fate. Othello's suicide is both an admission of guilt and a refusal to suffer or take
responsibility for his crimes.

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