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Oedipus The King 3 - Online Term Papers

Oedipus The King 3

“OEDIPUS THE KING”
The feature of the tragic hero as exemplified in Sophecles’ “Oedipus the King” makes the tragic character a great paradox. For unlike most, the tragic hero emerges as anything but a social person. He may begin that way, motivated by a genuine desire to help the community, as Oedipus, but what emerges in the course of the action is that he is actually, deep down where it really counts, far more concerned with himself, his own demands for justice on his own terms, than in compromising his desires with any awareness of ethical norms. He is, in fact, far less concerned about his own survival in the community than he is about being right, seeing ...

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free expressions of their own wills, is going to come to a nasty end. However grand and imaginatively appealing the tragic stance might be, it is essentially an act of defiance against the gods (or whoever rules the cosmos) and will push the tragic hero to an act of inevitable self-destruction. We cannot have life entirely on our own terms for very long.
What makes Oedipus so compelling is not that he suffers horribly and endures at the end an almost living death. The force of the play comes from the connection between Oedipus's sufferings and his own actions, that is, from the awareness of how he himself is bringing upon his own head the dreadful outcome.
He is looked upon as a hero because of the way he demonstrated his humbleness and his feelings of regret as well as the dignity of men and how it can be achieved in a world of confusion, greed, and power while struggling through the tragedy of his life. In that sense the tragic hero, like the comic hero, learns about himself and ...

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Oedipus The King 3. (2006, March 27). Retrieved February 1, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Oedipus-The-King-3/43434

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 3/27/2006 03:21:23 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 514
Pages: 2

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