Essay Preview: Rex
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Aristotle was a philosopher who had an important insight into the nature of tragedies. He’s definition of a typical tragic hero was that a hero is a man of noble stature, he is great but not perfect, and he’s downfall is his own fault caused by his own free choice. In Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, all these characteristics were shown by Oedipus, the main character.
First of all, Aristotle said that the tragic hero is a man of noble stature. Likewise, Oedipus was a son of Laius, the king of Thebes. At the end, Oedipus confesses, “…me, declared abominable of heaven, and Laius’ son.”(49) Even when he was left alone in the mountain, he was found by a man and adapted by Polybus, the king of Corinth. Also, he was very intelligent that his intelligence brought him the crown. When the Thebes was in a great famine because of the Sphinx, Oedipus solved the riddle of Sphinx. That caused her to open the gate and kill herself, and Oedipus became a king of Thebes and a husband of Jocasta.
Second, according to Aristotle, the hero is preeminently great, but not perfect. For Oedipus, his weakness was his temper and pride. He killed his biological father Laius because of his temperative personality. He said, “At the board, a drunken fellow over his cups called me a changeling.”(28) Oedipus couldn’t resist a drunken man calling him changeling and killed him! Also, he had a very high pride. When Tieresius, the blind prophet, came to him, Oedipus told him, “How came it when the oracular monster was alive you said no word to set this people free? And yet it was not for the first that came to solve her…till I came…and ended her.”(15) He’s pride and arrogance led him to not listen to Tieresius who told the true prophecy.
Last of all, Aristotle said that the hero’s downfall is partially