Oedipus Rex is considered to be one of the greatest and most quintessential greek tragedies of all time. This is probably because Oedipus has a lot of specific qualities that make him the ideal tragic hero. Oedipus is of the nobility in his story. He is the son of royalty by both his adoptive parents and his actual parents. He is also nobile in the sense that he solved the riddle of the sphinx and was given the ruling power in Thebes. Oedipus being noble quickly earns him the admiration of the audience and the people in the story. Going back to the Arthur Miller essay previously mentioned in class, I believe the reason subjects of great tragedies are alway nobility is because they are also the subject of praise and hope for their subjects. So not only are we the reader invested in the success of the protagonist but those who live under them are too.
Another reason Oedipus is able to draw so much catharsis is because of the nature of his “fatal flaw”. The thing that causes Oedipus’s downfall in the play (Killing his father, sleeping with his mother who he didn’t know was actually his mom) is completely out of oedipus’s control. This is important because if it was something Oedipus could control or even be conscious of, it would make him less likable of a character. Overall Oedipus Checks all the boxes of being a great tragedy as it makes you bond with, fear for, and pity the main character in a very cohesive way.
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In Ariely's TED talk his main point is that we as humans don’t really make rational decision like we think we do. Humans are not rational being’s in the more complex sense. We do things on impulse. In our purest state we are not equipped to handle complex decisions, and sometimes the decisions we do make, are wrong for a different reason than previously thought. Even though Ariely’s TED talk never even mentioned the concept of tragedy I believe his point actually has a large role to play in one of the main aspects of tragedy. In Tragedy every main protagonist has a “hamartia” or “tragic flaw” which drives along the bad things about to take place. As shown in plays like Oedipus the King, the hero might not be in control of or even know about their tragic flaw, causing them to make decisions that actually cause their misfortune,without knowing they caused it. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is told in a prophecy that he will kill his father and mary his mother, so to avoid this he leaves his homeland because very badly does not want this prophecy to come true because that would bring misfortune in the people he loves. However in making this decision he inevitably ends up running into Laius, killing him, going to thebes, becoming king, marrying Jocasta and fulfilling the prophecy and hurting those he loves anyway, even of thought it was not the family he expected.
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