King Lear Oedipus Is A Hero

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

OEDIPUS REX: A TRAGEDY OF FATE OR CHARACTER

The dilemma of human sufferings is a very perplexing one. The question that always agitates our minds is why man suffers. Is he responsible for his sufferings, calamities, and misfortunes for his innate defects: Tragic Flaw; or these are the result of enmity of heavenly forces. We also find this enigma in almost all great tragedies of Shakespeare. In King Lear, he says:

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods

They kill us for their sports.
On the opposite, he says in Julius Caesar: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, for we are underlings.

Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus
If strength, skill, determination, glory, great deeds of valour, strength and intellect are essential components of a hero, then Oedipus is essentially a great hero. He is one who believes; There is no fairer duty, Than that of helping others in distress. No doubt, Oedipus is impetuous and rash like King Lear, Suspicious like Othello and arrogant like Julius Caesar. The way he blasphemes the teachings of Greek gods and his derogatory treatment with Teiresias and his hubris may be responsible for the calamity that befalls him. Despite all these human limitations, indispensable to all human beings, we cannot pin all responsibility of calamity on Oedipus. A bird’s eye view of the play clearly reveals that Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of fate and not a tragedy of character. His sufferings may be ascribed to the sadistic forces of Nature. How can we impeach him for Parricide and Incest when both these inveterate sins had been prophesied by Oracle even before his birth? As he himself says, I have been preserved for some unthinkable fate.
At the injustice and cruel nature of gods, he cries out after blinding himself. If I was created so, born to this fate, Who could deny the savagery of
He is man who wants to seek truth at any cost. If he is a lover of truth and solver of riddles, he cannot rest content with a lie. Being a great hero, he must tear away the last veil from the illusion in which he had lived so long. He must read the last riddle: the riddle of his of his own life, “The truth must be made known.” According to Dr. Nagle, Oedipus is a tragic figure because it is his own heroic qualities, his loyalty to Thebes, and his fidelity to truth that ruined him.” No doubt fate has dealt Oedipus and his family a bad hand right from the start. The royal house of Thebes has a long history of undeserved misfortunes starting with Oedipus’ great great grandfather Cadmus and his wife Hermonia. They were both turned into snakes by gods. All four of his daughters were visited with great misfortunes. Zeus killed a daughter. Another became mad while the youngest committed suicide. Likewise Oedipus’ fate resembles that of Tess about whom Hardy says, “ Justice was done and the President of Immortals had ended his sport with Tess.” Same is the case with Oedipus’ tragic fall. At the end of the tragedy, he himself