Ashley McHugh English 4 Pd.5 Hero Essay 10/22/01 According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is one who evokes our pity and terror if he is neither completely good nor completely evil, but is a mixture of both. A tragic hero is also one who suffers a change in fortune from happiness to misery, because of misfortune. The tragic hero receives our pity because his misfortune was greater than he deserved, he is deprived of something very valuable to him by error of judgment. We must be able to identify ourselves with a tragic hero, which will evoke fear because he is not much better than us. Oedipus, by Sophocles was a tragedy itself, which contained a tragic hero, Oedipus.
Oedipus was not completely good or bad. He was a man filled with arrogance and pride. Oedipus is a man who people want to be like, he has everything a man can want and comes from a high power.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's teeth, by Maxfield Parr...
This image was first published in the 1 st (1876&n...
Oedipus slaying the sphinx. Attic red-figured leky...Oedipus was a powerful leader of Thebes, searching for the man who killed Laius, and tried to be very honest. Oedipus? good qualities make you experience pity for him and feel that he doesn?t deserve the fate that was chosen for him. Oedipus? misfortune was caused by an error in his judgment, which arises from a defect in the character. Oedipus has a tragic flaw ? arrogance, which causes his downfall. The consequence of Oedipus? error slowly increases until he is eventually destroyed.
A tragic hero must have a big change in his life, he must pass from happiness to misery. Oedipus was seen in the beginning of the play as a happy man and has everything a man should want, he has wealth and power, and is surrounded by good fortune. Then his disaster befalls him and he...