Essay - Oedipus Rex in Greek Tragedy, the Hero is Punished for...

Oedipus Rex

In Greek tragedy, the hero is pun*****hed for some sin, made to pay the price even though in many cases what he will do has been *****eordained. Aris*****tle surveyed t***** drama of his time and developed certain concepts regarding the nature ***** the tragic hero. The tragic hero must be an important person with a character flaw that causes him to make a great mistake leading to tremen*****us suffering and a fall from his high status. The tragedy derives from the fact that none of what occurs is the tragic *****'s fault, for the tragic flaw predetermines his actions and seals ***** fate, Modern audiences may consider this inexplicable, for while viewers underst***** when someone is punished for a crime *****y commit intentionally, it is less clear how ***** should ***** ascribed ***** the crime is not intentional.

Oedipus's fate is indeed determined before ***** action of the play, and for that matter ***** is determined when he is born. His parents are told by ***** oracle at Delphi th***** t*****ir son would one day kill his fa*****er and marry his mother:

An oracle was reported to Laios once...

***** his doom would be the death at the hands of his own *****... (Scene II).

They abandon ***** child, assuming that he has died, but ***** has not and many years later does ***** his father and marry his mother, all ********** knowing who they are:

killed *****.

A killed them all.

Now if that stranger and laios were--kin,

***** is a man more miserable than I? (***** II).

Oedipus's fall comes as he learns of what ***** has done and punishes himself for it. In the Greek view, man is responsible ***** his actions and must suffer the consequences, though ***** is difficult to reconcile with the plot of the play because Oedipus's actions are both ordained and undertaken without guilty knowledge. Neither of these *****ors ***** considered by the Greeks to reduce ***** level of guilt, however, and he punishes himself. The fact that the crime was committed years earlier is not uncommon:

***** it is a striking fact ***** rarely in Greek ***** do we see the fault of ***** hero ***** and expiated in the same *****. Old tradition evidently held the point of attack close to ***** death ***** the *****. As tragedy evolved, the dramatic emphas***** ***** the sympathy of the spectator were shifted ***** the chorus to persons interested in the hero and finally ***** ***** hero himself ***** had, as it were, risen from the tomb to enact ***** the eyes of the audience many if ***** all the *****ts that the ritual had presented in narrative form (Stuart 16).

As M.S. Silk notes with reference to Agamemnon, ***** man ***** that c*****e faces two unacceptable possibilities and must choose between them: "Both alternatives are unacceptable. It is not *****'s fault that he ***** placed in a situation ***** which he has to choose between *****, but he is responsible