The Causes of Oedipus’ Tragic Fall

Liu Junya

Mr Daniel Jernigan

HL2026—Reading Drama

10 April 2015

The causes of Oedipus’ tragic fall

Oedipus has long been regarded as the tragic hero in literary history who is “a tyrant who is not really a tyrant, a king who does not know he is king, a son, a father, husband and brother; he is a guiltless criminal who committed, innocently, incest and patricide; a child who should not have been born, a man who should have died in infancy” (Laszlo Versényi 21). What caused his tragedy, the fate, his flaws or his errors? In this paper, I propose to explore the reasons that cause Oedipus’ tragedy.

Aristotle raises his views in Poetics. He believes that to see a supremely good man plunged into misfortune, or an evil man gains happiness, is repellent to our moral sense. We are likely to be shocked by the first and disgusted by or indifferent by the second. Therefore, the protagonist in a “fine” tragedy should be a man “who neither perfect in virtue and justice, nor one who falls into misfortune through vice and depravity; but rather, one who succumbs through some miscalculation. He must also be a person who enjoys great reputation and good fortune, such as Oedipus…” (22) That means that the tragic hero should conform to the following three points: 1. He is not perfect in virtue or justice---sometimes he should be evil or unjust；2. He falls into misfortune not through vice and depravity but some miscalculations—he makes errors that lead him to downfall；3. He is a man who enjoys good position and reputation, and he is prosperous. Oedipus is the king of Thebes. There is no doubt that he enjoys great fortune, good position and reputation. Therefore, we should focus on the first and second points. Oedipus is not perfect in nature and makes some errors. Aristotle’s point stands for a kind of mainstream idea: the flaws and errors cause Oedipus’ tragedy.

First of all, Oedipus has some flaws in his nature. As Laszlo Versényi points out, “fate merely provides the external situation, but Oedipus’ character provides the drama—action—and the tragedy” (23). Firstly, he is impulsive and reckless. When Teiresias told the oracle to Oedipus, Oedipus became very angry and began scold at Teiresias without figuring out the truth: “Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words, / But speak my whole mind.  Thou methinks thou art he, / Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too, / All save the assassination; and if thou / Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot / That thou alone didst do the bloody deed” (27). The rash, impulsion and irrational are exposed through this dialogue. Just because of the recklessness of him, he killed all the people in the triple-branching roads. Besides this, he is arrogant and stubborn. Oedipus said to Teiresias “the riddle was not to be solved / By guess-work but required the prophet's art; / Wherein thou wast found lacking; neither birds / Nor sign from heaven helped thee, but I came, / The simple Oedipus; I stopped her mouth / By mother wit, untaught of auguries” (14). He believed he was very smart because he could solve the riddle. However, solving the riddle lulls him into the tragedy of marrying his mother. The obstinacy of him—the obstinacy of self knowing is another cause of his tragedy. Laszlo Versényi raises “Tragedy of Self-knowing” that “the unfolding of the play is the unfolding of Oedipus’ self-involvement; the self-unfolding, (self-revelation, self-fulfillment and self-destruction) of Oedipus. The play is a tragedy of self-knowledge” (24). Jocasta tried to persuade Oedipus from searching his origin, but he insisted doing it. Jocasta: “as thou carest for thy life, give o'er / This quest.  Enough the anguish I endure.” But Oedipus said: “Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son / Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents / Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched” (39). Oedipus has always been trying to figure out his origin, to know himself, equate himself (what he knows himself to be) with himself (what he essentially is). He believed that he cannot live without knowing himself, yet he cannot live even having found out. If he hadn’t been so stubborn and given up searching his origin, he would have not fallen into tragedy; at least he would have not fallen into tragedy by himself.

Secondly, Oedipus makes some errors. There is no doubt that killing his father and marry his mother are two errors Oedipus made. But these are superficial ones. People who in Aristotle’s group point out that the error of Oedipus, in essence, is disobeying god’s oracle and defying god’s authority. Apollo and Delphic oracles tells Oedipus that he will kill his father and marry his mother but he tried to avoid his fate after he heard of the oracle. “Hence Corinth was for many a year to me [Oedipus] / A home distant; and I trove abroad, / But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face” (35). However, oracles cannot be avoided. Chorus in the Oedipus the king goes: “This is no time to wrangle but consult / How best we may fulfill the oracle” (14) “Who when such deeds are done / Can hope heaven's bolts to shun” (31)? Richard Stoneman points out that “at least people might believe, although the idea that a thing is fated should preclude its being averted” (7) and “characters in the tragedy of Oedipus rail against seers and oracles does not undermine the seers and oracles because the audience knows they are right and Oedipus and Jocasta are wrong, as their fates will show” (13). Oedipus falls into his tragic life just because he wants to avoid his tragic life. It is because that the oracle cannot be disobeyed and the fate cannot be avoided. This is one of the mainstream views.