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King Oedipus Tragic Hero

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Exploring the Writings of Sophocles: The Tragic Hero, Oedipus
The greeks sure do love their tragic heroes, in fact, lots of plays had one. But what makes up a tragic hero and why is Oedipus one? In King Oedipus, we see recurring themes such as blindness and sight that guide our hero Oedipus through his journey. Idealisms such as these relate to the traits of Oedipus being a tragic hero. In the Classic Greek Tragedy “ King Oedipus”, the traits that make Oedipus a tragic hero are his Hamartia and his Great Suffering or Falling from grace.
Oedipus is a Tragic hero because of the fact that he has a fatal flaw, his hamartia, which can be seen as determination, pride, or anger. Oedipus demonstrates multiple times throughout the play, his hamartia, and we see as it leads him to his ultimate …show more content…

A significant time we see Oedipus demonstrate his Hamartia is when Tiresias, the prophet proclaim that Oedipus is the murderer that he was searching for in the murder of Laius. This threw Oedipus into a fury and he began to rant about how when the city was in danger from the Sphinx that he “Stopped the Sphinx!” (KO 182). Not the Gods and not Tyrese's the prophet. This blatant disrespect for the gods because of Oedipus and his pride, which is seen as a hamartia to the audience, which is one of the pivotal aspects of being a tragic hero. Another trait of Oedipus that leads to his hamartia is determination. In the beginning of the story, Oedipus is discussing the matters of the famine and disease in Thebes with Creon and the priest. They discuss and come to a conclusion that the disease and famine are being caused by the unsolved murder of the past king, Laius. King Oedipus becomes wildly determined curses the killer of Laius, and with disdain, he proclaims that whoever “Might think to turn his hand against me” (KO 29) will be punished. Doing this Oedipus is turning his hand against himself which becomes his hamartia seeing as

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