Oedipus Tragic Hero

Oedipus the King, by Sophocles, contains a very prominent tragic hero: Oedipus. A tragic hero, by Aristotle's definition of one, must possess six traits. One of them is that the tragic hero must be of noble stature. Another trait of a tragic hero is a tragic flaw. A third trait defined by Aristotle is that a tragic hero must have a period of recognition of his crimes. Oedipus strongly displays each of the three aforementioned, necessary traits; and he is, then, an obvious tragic hero.

Oedipus' noble stature is immediately apparent in Oedipus the King. The play's prologue opens with Oedipus addressing the people of Thebes. He states, "Yes, I whom men call Oedipus the Great" (5). This shows that Oedipus is of certain nobility, as it would be
Oedipus is very much an angry person. Oedipus, at first, is kind to the prophet Tiresias. When Tiresias does not immediately fulfill Oedipus' desire for knowledge regarding the death and killer of Laisu, however, Oedipus quickly changes. He says to Tiresias, "What, nothing? You miserable old man! You'd drive a stone to fury. Do you still refuse? Your flinty heart set in hopeless stubbornness" (19)? This is the beginning of Oedipus' expression of anger. When he wants something, he wants it immediately and without flaw, else he is quickly infuriated. It is ironic, then, that his disapproval of flaw in one's actions is his own tragic flaw. Later, Oedipus accuses Creon of murdering Laius. Creon says that Oedipus is not thinking clearly; and he inquires as to why Oedipus thinks he is not thinking clearly enough. To which Oedipus says, "What! For a treason-monger" (35)? This shows that Oedipus' anger and frustration with Creon makes him unable to see things justly. To Oedipus, since he said that Creon killed Laius, it must be so. The greatest display of Oedipus' hamartia comes in his recollection of the day he killed Laius. He says, "The leading groom - the old man urging him - tried to force me off the road. The groom jostled me and I in fury landed him a blow. [...] He more than paid for it. For in a trice this hand of mine had felled him with a stick and rolled him from
Oedipus says: "Lost! Ah lost! At least it's blazing clear. Light of my days, go dark. I want to gaze no more. My birth all sprung revealed from those it never should, myself entwined with those I never could. And I the killer of those I never would" (67). It is at this point that Oedipus realizes everything: he is the adopted son of King Polybus; he is the true son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta; he killed his father, Laius; he married his mother, Jocasta; and Tiresias' prophesy was right in that he was the man he was looking for. When everything becomes so clear to Oedipus, he feels nothing but remorse. He must punish himself, and does so by gouging out his eyes with Jocasta's brooches. His monologue, brought about by his anagnorsis, foreshadows his self-inflicted