The Role of Hamartia in Oedipus the King Essay -- Oedipus the King Oed

The Role of Hamartia in Oedipus the King Literary cataclysm has roots that extend two and a half millennia into the past, simply passim this history the genres defining characteristics have remained the same. At the very core of calamity lies an uncertainty over the cause of the tragic plight. The pass awaying candidate for an score of this cause often comes under the name of hamartia, a Greek pronounce that translates into a defect in character, an error or a mistake. However, the most common conception (or misconception) of this notion is that it involves a moral or intellectual weakness, a view that often leads scholars to regard hamartia as the answer to questions of tragic flaw. Care must be taken in making this assumption since no element in tragedy bears diffused explanation and since the exact nature of hamartia itself is impossible to pinpoint. In this personality of uncertainty and as Aristotles conception of the ideal tragedy, Oedipus the King revolves around d ependable such an elusive why. This play, like all tragedies, defies our notions of cause and effect--no hotshot action or fault of the hero could have rightly overleap him into the intense shame of incest and patricide. In the incessant search for what could have created this downfall, mavin line of thought gives responsibility for Oedipus story to the heavy hand of slew. If this scheme is to be believed, his entire life can be viewed as a confirmation of a prophesized fate, much as a reading of the school text is a fulfillment of the story we already know. Whether a prewritten destiny situated the kings actions, or whether he earned this destiny with the faulted life foreseen by the gods, an analytic thinking of Oedipus behaviors may suggest why he was forced to f... ...sible to call Oedipus faults an tendency of Sophocles exploration. Perhaps, too, the great tragedian sought to illustrate the consequence of such behaviors by associating them with a doomed individual. Th ough it is difficult to imagine Sophocles offering an Aesop-like lesson, the Greek tragedies perpetually served a civic function to the audience that gathered to view them. and then it may be reasonable to believe that this drama meant to illuminate the faults that could lead to downfall in the ancient world, and even to caution against them. The unpredictable influences destiny and divinity surely played a role in Oedipus decline, but just as significant a contribution to the tragic predicament came from his own failings. Works CitedSophocles. Oedipus the King. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston. Bedford/St. Martins. 1999.