Oedipus Journal Questions

Oedipus Journal Questions
I. Aristotle’s definition of Hamartia is an uncertain term. Hamartia is an archery term meaning “missing the mark.” It may mean error in judgment, transgression or character flaw. Does Oedipus have a hamartia and if so, in which sense of the word? Discuss. Use incidents from the text for clarification and support. Oedipus does have a hamartia, but not in the way that most would think, he has an error in judgement. Oedipus does not have a character flaw, but while he does have hubris, it does not ultimately lead to his downfall, as much as it does contributes to it. Oedipus unknowing of his parentage from the start, and he gains his excessive pride on his journey. Of course Oedipus would be proud of himself as he just solved the difficult riddle of
When Oedipus is told by the the blind prophet Teiresias that he was the man who would kill his own father and marry his mother, he denies this and tries to avoid this fate, "I have kept clear of Corinth, and no harm has come-" to which his messenger replies. "And is this the fear that drove you out of Corinth?" Of course Oedipus denies this fate. Who would want to be accused of such appalling acts? Oedipus is simply trying to do what he thinks is right in order to avoid this fate. One could say that Oedipus is ignorant of the fact that one could not just avoid his fate, others might argue that it was his pride that led him to believe that he was above the power of gods. Yet again, Oedipus is unaware of his parentage, he moves out of his hometown where he thought his parents resided in, and marries the Queen of Thebes. Surely this woman would not be someone who Oedipus would think to be his own mother. This fact alone shows that it is not Oedipus ' hubris that leads to his tragic fall, but him being uninformed. Oedipus was always trying to do the right thing, he searches for the