Oedipus: A Tragic Hero

The major focus of this tragedy is on the character of the hero, Oedipus. He is a person of great importance; in fact, the security and health of the community depend upon him. And he has to meet an urgent crisis, something which threatens the continuing existence of the city. And because he is very conscious of his own qualities, he takes upon himself that responsibility. Oedipus, above everything else at first, is a person who acts decisively and who is celebrated for so doing.

In that sense, Oedipus is like Odysseus, who is also famous for his ability to act and react in an emergency. What is most important about them, however, emerges not from their initial decisions to act but rather from what happens as the conflict they are caught in gets more complicated.
As his situation gets more complicated and things do not work out as he has imagined they might, unlike Odysseus, he does not adapt, change, or learn. He becomes more and more determined to see the problem through on his own terms; he becomes increasingly inflexible. Having accepted the responsibility for saving Thebes, he will on his own see the matter through, without compromise, without lies, without subterfuge. Oedipus demands from life that it answers to him, to his vision of what it must be. Throughout the play he is seeking to impose his will upon events. People around him are always urging caution, prudence, even an abandonment of his quest, but to act on such advice would be for Oedipus a denial of what he is. And, as he repeatedly states, he would rather suffer anything than compromise his sense of who he is and how he must conduct