Oedipus Rex
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Sophocles play “Oedipus Rex” is what many consider to be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of drama. Even Aristotle regards the play as one of the best “On no less than ten occasions in The Poetics, Aristotle uses Oedipus the King as an allusion when referring to “the perfect tragedy “or the best means” of creating triadic effect (Greenwald63). It has all the proper elements Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, and Music. Though the course of the play the audience will watch how King Oedipus evolves into a Tragic Hero. “Aristotle defined a tragic hero as a person of great statute and virtue who becomes aware of a moral deficit within himself. This deficit leads to great tragedy” (McKinney). At the begging the great Oedipus is the savior of the wonderful city of Thebes from the evil Sphinx and its killer riddle which will eventfully will lead to his coronation and he becomes king of the great city, but by the time the finally act ends Oedipus will become a blind beggar on the outskirts of the city. During the course of the play the audience witnesses the metamorphoses of Oedipus and learns that he is not the static character that Sophocles portrays in the begging, but is actually a dynamic character. Whose personality is a tragic flaw and leads to the inevitable end to his rule. “He is a man whose greatness brings him glory, but whose weakness leads to tragedy”(McKinney).
Oedipus is a leader who loves his people, cares for his people and understands their wants and needs. When the play starts plague has stuck the city and the people are dying at an extremely fast rate thus will soon cause the demises of Thebes. The citizens look towards their fearless ruler who already saved the city once before, for help. Being a good king that understands his people, Oedipus is already one step ahead of his citizens and has sent Creon to the Oracle of Delphi to find out the cause of the disaster and a way to save the city. The begging shows the audience that Oedipus is fast acting when it comes to making decisions, he has the ability to think on his feet and this seemingly benefit himself and his subjects. This quality not only gives Oedipus great power and wealth but also causes him to behave rashly. This is proven truthful when the audience finds out that Oedipus murders king Laius just because a minor dispute on the outskirts of Thebes. He also gets very aggravated extremely easy when he does not get what he wants such as the time when he threatened to banish Teiresias for not giving him the information about murder. Oedipus is a very confident ruler who believes he is making the best chose and has virtually no fear. This form of arrogance is what cause his overall downfall because he refused to lesion to Teiresias and Creon about the murder of king Laius. As king Oedipus develops a paranoia of being over thrown, he even accuses his own wife Jocasta and his step-brother Creon in conspiring to overthrow his rule. So the audience can conclude that even though on the outside it looks as if Oedipus has the personality and characteristics to be a great ruler, but really these qualities turn to tragic flaws that lead to his demises and fulfillment of his prophecy.
Threw the course of the play Oedipus has two goals that he fells are very important and have to get done. The first one is being a good ruler and be able to provide for his people.