A Tragedy Makes A Hero Essay Research — страница 2

actually a Theban, the king’s son, cast out of Thebes as a baby because of a prophecy Laius had received, that his son would kill him. Oedipus had killed his father on his journey to Thebes and married his mother. Horrified, he blinds himself and leaves Thebes forever. The play then continues into Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. Oedipus is considered a hero because he eventually rids the city of the plague by leaving the city as Creon, Oedipus’s uncle and brother-in-law, found out how to rid the city of the plague. The tragic part of the story is that Oedipus eventually becomes lost with who he is. He has no grounding and is now alienated. This is known as peripety, as explained by Aristotle in “Poetics.” It is where a change from one state of affairs to its exact

opposite. (749) Recognition, as the word itself indicates, is a change from ignorance to knowledge, leading either to friendship or to hostility on the part of those persons who are marked for good fortune or bad. (749) And now that Oedipus realizes what has happened Jocasta, his mother and wife, commits suicide. In reaction to this stimulus, Oedipus gorges out his eyes. Once Creon has found out about the family tree, Oedipus and his children are banished from Thebes, later to meet their fate in the following plays. A tragedy does indeed make a hero in ancient world literature. Every single being has a fate, no matter what level of society that being is on. One cannot change his or her fate; it is left up to the gods. Eventually all roads of life leads to death, it is how that

being dies brings about the tragedy. As Aristotle mentioned in “Poetics”, What is more, without action there could not be a tragedy, but there could be without characterization. 43e Aristotle. “Poetics.” Lawall and Mack 746-750 Euripides. “Medea.” Lawall and Mack 640-672 Lawall, Sarah and Mack, Maynard, eds. The Norton Anthology World Masterpieces. 7th ed. Vol 1. New York: W?W? Norton & Company, 1999.