WHY OEDIPUS IS AN IDEAL TRAGIC HERO:

 

In his Poetics, Aristotle defined tragic hero as a person, who is an ‘intermediate kind of personage, a man not preeminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however,  is brought upon him not by vice or depravity, but some error of judgement’( Bywater’s translation).

Oedipus enjoys great reputation and a prosperous life. But his life takes a drastic turn from happiness to misery.Oedipus suffers primarily, due to an error of judgement resulted from ignorance or moral shortcoming. In his Poetics, Aristotle asserts that the tragic hero ought to be a person whose misfortune is brought upon him, not by any vice or depravity, but by some error. Oedipus impulsively kills his father and inadvertently ends up marrying his mother.

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