Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Musleh Saadi
Oct 5
5 min read

Analysis of Oedipus Rex

Paragraph 1 – Introduction

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex is one of the greatest tragedies of classical Greek drama and a model of tragic structure as defined by Aristotle. The play follows the life of Oedipus, the King of Thebes, whose pursuit of truth leads to the discovery that he has unwittingly fulfilled a prophecy: he killed his father and married his mother. Aristotle praised this play in Poetics as the perfect example of tragedy, as it embodies key elements like hamartia, peripeteia (reversal), anagnorisis (recognition), and catharsis. Hamartia_in_Oedipus_Rex

Paragraph 2 – Plot Summary

The story begins with Thebes struck by plague. Oedipus vows to find the murderer of King Laius, as instructed by the Oracle of Apollo. Unbeknownst to him, he himself is the murderer. As he searches for the truth, he consults Creon, Tiresias, and the shepherds, while Jocasta, his wife, urges him to stop. Gradually, evidence reveals his dreadful fate: Oedipus is both son and husband to Jocasta. Overwhelmed, Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus blinds himself in despair, requesting exile. The tragic end fulfills the prophecy he tried to escape. Summary of (Oedipus the king) …

Paragraph 3 – Oedipus’ Character Traits

Oedipus is portrayed as a noble yet flawed king. He is intelligent, having once solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and courageous in facing crises. However, he is also impulsive, arrogant, and suspicious. His rash temper leads him to kill Laius in a quarrel, and his pride causes him to challenge both Tiresias and Creon harshly. His determination to uncover the truth, though admirable, becomes the very cause of his downfall. These conflicting qualities make him both admirable and tragically human. Hamartia_in_Oedipus_Rex

Paragraph 4 – Hamartia in Oedipus Rex

Oedipus’ downfall is largely the result of his hamartia, or tragic flaw. Scholars identify several aspects of this flaw: his ego and hubris (excessive pride in his achievements), his recklessness and anger (as shown in his killing of Laius), and his over-curiosity in relentlessly seeking the truth about his origins. He ignores repeated warnings from Tiresias, Jocasta, and the shepherds, stubbornly pursuing knowledge until the devastating truth emerges. As Aristotle argued, Oedipus falls not due to wickedness but because of this human error in judgment, making his tragedy profoundly moving. Hamartia_in_Oedipus_Rex

Paragraph 5 – Conclusion

Ultimately, Oedipus Rex is a timeless study of fate, free will, and human weakness. Oedipus’ tragic flaw highlights the limits of human knowledge and the dangers of excessive pride. His suffering evokes pity and fear in the audience, leading to catharsis, the emotional cleansing that Aristotle considered essential to tragedy. As both a noble ruler and a flawed man, Oedipus embodies the tragic hero whose downfall continues to resonate in literature, philosophy, and psychology to this day.

Hamartia in Oedipus Rex: Summary of (Oedipus the king)

Q: What is “hamartia” ? How Sophocles treated Hamartia in Oedipus Rex ?

Q: What are the tragic flaws of Oedipus in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” ?

Q: What are cause of Oedipus’s Demise in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” ?

Hamartia is a personal error in a protagonist’s personality that brings about his tragic downfall in a tragedy. This defect in a hero’s personality is also known as a “tragic flaw. Aristotle used the word in his “Poetics” where it is taken as a mistake or error in judgment. According to the Aristotle, the tragic character of a good tragedy should not fall due to either excessive virtue or excessive wickedness, but due to hamartia. Oedipus, the tragic character in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, certainly makes several such mistakes. He is egoistic, arrogance, reckless, overcurious, stubborn and outrageous .

Oedipus’ character flaw is ego. After being successful in making Thabes free from the curse of Sphinx, his pride boosted more. He becomes overconfident. He thinks himself; he is the one and all are none. This is made evident in the opening lines of the prologue when he states "Here I am myself--you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus". His conceit is the root cause of a number of related problems. Among these are recklessness, disrespect, and stubbornness. Oedipus displays an attitude of recklessness and disrespect throughout the play. When he makes his proclamation and no one confesses to the murder of Laius, Oedipus loses patience immediately. Later, he displays a short temper to Tiresias, the prophet: "You, you scum of the earth . . . out with it, once and for all!"

Later he becomes suspicious that Creon and Tiresias are the mastermind of killing of Lius. He strongly suspects the prophet which makes him disrespectful. Out of temperament and disrespect, he says Tiresias, "Enough! Such filth from him? Insufferable--what, still alive? Get out--faster, back where you came from--vanish!" He also shows disrespect to the Shepherd for his reluctance of reply. Oedipus certainly has no respect for the man’s age when he tortures him. Oedipus’ cruelty indeed brings his own demise out of the shepherd: "You’re a dead man if I have to ask again”

He is a outrageous man. Way of treatment with Creon, Tiresias and the Shepherd carry that evident. He kills five aged man including his father out of rage. Even after passing many years, he details that incident with full of rage. “ I killed, killed them all” he says.

If an unwillingness to listen may be considered stubbornness, certainly Oedipus would take advice from no one who would tell him to drop the matter of his identity, among them Tiresias, the shepherd, and even Jocasta. Even after Oedipus thinks he has reprieve from the fate he fears when he hears that Polybus is dead, he does not have the sense to keep still. "So! Jocasta, why, why look to the Prophet’s hearth . . . all those prophesies I feared . . . they’re nothing, worthless". He is overcurious which starts with finding his parental identity and ends with revealing his own identity.

After his recognition and reversal, Oedipus exclaims "The hand that struck my eyes was mine, . . . I did it all myself!" He is not only referring to his self-infliction, but also the seriul of events that led to his demise. Creon later comments that "it’s better to ask precisely what to do". Each of these events, when isolated, may be excused as a simple mistake. However, when viewed as a whole, a pattern emerges among these cumulative mistakes and this pattern is hamartia as a whole. Oedipus’s hamartia may most directly be his mistakes, but ultimately all these mistakes flow from his ego or his pride.

Short Summary of Oedipus Rex

It’s a story of (Oedipus the king) the king of Thebes, Oedipus has killed his own Father (king Laius) and married with his mother Laius’s widow (JOCASTA), and had four children with her, two sons, (Eteocles and Polyneices, and two daughters Antigone and Ismene). He was offered the throne because he was successful in saving the city from the Sphinx. A Crowd of Citizens gathered at the front of the Royal Palace of Thebes. There are altars (citizens carrying branches decorated with laurel garlands and wool led by the PRIEST, They was carrying because a (Dangerous Virus “Pestilence” spread in the City of Thebes) this disease effects on the Women and children,

Oedipus said I have already sent my brother-in-law, CREON to Pythian Apollo’s shrine, to learn from him what I might do or say to save our city. (CREON Enter He tells about the Good news by God (Even troubles difficult to bear will all end happily if events lead to the right conclusion and he tells about God’s instructions about the blood shedding blood ( means killing of Laius) and god is clear those murderers, must be punished, Oedipus announced that he would take a revenge the murder of Laius. Then he contacts with CHORUS LEADER AND TEIRESIAS , Oedipus’s great chat with both of these people in a warm away.

[1](https://www.litcharts.com/lit/oedipus-rex/summary)

[2](https://study.com/academy/lesson/oedipus-rex-by-sophocles-summary-theme-analysis.html)

[3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_Rex)

[4](https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Oedipus-Rex/plot-summary/)

[5](https://www.sparknotes.com/drama/oedipus/summary/)

[6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_M5iyRx1yM)

[7](https://www.scribd.com/document/478269532/Summary-of-Oedipus-Rex-docx)

[8](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oedipus-Rex-play-by-Sophocles)

[9](https://www.litcharts.com/lit/oedipus-rex/lines-1-340)

[10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IfTDtuPLeg)

[11](https://www.britannica.com/art/hamartia)

[12](https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/hamartia)