The Mystery of Oedipus's Hamartia

Oedipus

Character Analyses:

I. OEDIPUS

The Mystery of Oedipus's Hamartia

You could wallpaper every home on Earth with the amount of scholarly papers written on Oedipus. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But, in truth, there is a whole lot of disagreement about one central aspect of Oedipus's character. Scholars have been talking smack to each other for centuries over an essential question: what is Oedipus's hamartia, often called a tragic flaw? Aristotle tells us in his Poetics that every tragic hero is supposed to have one of these, and that the hamartia is the thing that causes the hero's downfall. Aristotle also cites Oedipus as the best example ever of a tragic hero. Why then is it so unclear to generation after generation, just what Oedipus's hamartia is? Let's take a stroll though some of the major theories and see what there is to see.

Theory # 1: Determination

It's true that if Oedipus wasn't so determined to find out the identity of Laius's real killer he would never have discovered the terrible truth of his life. Can you really call this a flaw, though? Before you go all Judge Judy on the guy, there’s another way to think about this. Oedipus is really exemplifying a prized and admirable human trait: determination. Why is it that we praise Hemingway’s Old Man and Homer’s Odysseus for the same determination for which we condemn Oedipus?
Furthermore, the reason Oedipus is dead set on solving the mystery is to save his people. Creon brings him word from the Oracle of Delphi that he must banish the murderer from the city or the plague that is ravaging Thebes will continue. It seems like Oedipus is doing exactly what a good ruler ought to do. He's trying to act in the best interest of his people.

Theory #2: Anger

OK it's definitely true that our buddy Oedipus has a temper. Indeed it was rash anger that led to him unknowingly kill his real father, King Laius, at the crossroads. The killing of his father is an essential link in Oedipus's downfall, making his violent temper a good candidate for a tragic flaw.
Of course, Oedipus has a pretty good case for self defense. There he was – a lone traveler, minding his own business. Then, out of nowhere, a bunch of guys show up, shove him off the road, and hit him in the head with whip. If we were Oedipus, we'd be angry too.

Killing all but one of them seems like an overreaction to modern audiences, but Oedipus's actions wouldn't have seemed as radical to an ancient Greek audience. They lived in violent times. A man had the right to defend himself when attacked, especially when alone on a deserted road.
Within the play we see Oedipus's anger when he lashes out at both Creon and Teiresias for bringing him bad news. This time he just talks trash, though. We don't see any ninja-style violence. What's most important to notice is that these angry tirades don't do the most important thing for a hamartia to do – they don't bring on Oedipus's downfall. He just rants for a while and threatens to do bad things but never does. These tirades don't cause anything else to happen. In fact they seem like a pretty natural reaction, to a whole lot of very bad news. Notice too, that anger in no way causes Oedipus to sleep with Jocasta, which is an important part of his downfall.

Theory #3: Hubris

Hubris is translated as excessive pride. This term inevitably comes up almost every time you talk about a piece of ancient Greek literature. There's no denying that Oedipus is a proud man. Of course, he's got pretty good reason to be. He's the one that saved Thebes from the Sphinx. If he hadn't come along and solved the Sphinx's riddle, the city would still be in the thrall of the creature. It seems that Oedipus rightly deserves the throne of Thebes.
Many scholars point out that Oedipus's greatest act of hubris is when he tries to deny his fate. The Oracle of Delphi told him long ago that he was destined to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus tried to escape his fate by never returning to Corinth, the city where he grew up, and never seeing the people he thought were his parents again. Ironically, it was this action that led him to kill his real father Laius and to marry his mother Jocasta.
It's undeniable that by trying to avoid his fate Oedipus ended up doing the thing he most feared. This is probably the most popular theory as to Oedipus's hamartia. We would ask a rather simple question, though: what else was Oedipus supposed to do? Should he have just thrown up his hands and been like, "Oh well, if that's my fate, we should just get this over with." This thought is ridiculous and more than a little twisted. It hardly seems like the moral we're supposed to take from the story. Is it really a flaw to try to avoid committing such horrendous acts?

Theory #4: We've got hamartia all wrong

Though hamartia is often defined as a tragic flaw, it actually has a much broader meaning. It's more accurately translated as an error in judgment or a mistake. You can still call it hamartia even if the hero makes these mistakes in a state of ignorance. The hero doesn't necessarily have to be intentionally committing the so-called "sin." Hmm, does that sound like anybody we know?

The word hamartia comes from the Greek hamartanein, which means "missing the mark." The hero aims his arrow at the bull's eye, but ends up hitting something altogether unexpected. Oedipus is the perfect example of this. The target for Oedipus is finding Laius's murderer in order to save Thebes. He does achieve this, but unfortunately brings disaster on himself in the process. Oedipus aim's for the bull's eye but ends up hitting his own eyes instead.
Sure, Oedipus has some flaws. Just like the rest of us, he's far from perfect. There's a strong argument, though, that ultimately the man is blameless. Some say that all this talk or tragic flaws was later scholars trying to impress a Christian worldview onto a pagan literature. The Greeks just didn't have quite the same ideas of sin that later societies developed.
The reason that Aristotle admired Oedipus the King so much is that the protagonist's downfall is caused by his own actions. We are moved to fear and pity at the end of the play not because Oedipus is sinful, but because he's always tried to do the right thing. The terrible irony is that his desire to do the right thing that brings about his destruction. When Oedipus gouges out his eyes at the end of the play, he symbolically becomes the thing he's always been: blind to the unknowable complexity of the universe.

II. CREON

Creon is portrayed as a pretty stand-up guy. He shows himself to be honest, forthright, and even tempered. The best example of Creon's reasonable nature happens when Oedipus accuses him of conspiracy. Instead of getting all mad and talking junk to his paranoid brother-in-law (and nephew), Creon offers a rational explanation as to why he has no desire for Oedipus's crown.
For one, Creon already has all the power he wants. Because he is the brother of Oedipus's wife, he basically has the same amount of status as Oedipus. Everybody sucks up to him to try and get to the king. If Creon had the crown he would have basically the same amount of power but ten times the headache. Who would want that? In this scene, Creon’s rationality stands out in stark contrast to Oedipus's angry paranoia.
Creon's argument is also strengthened by the fact that he's the one who gave Oedipus the crown in the first place. After the death of Laius, Creon was the King of Thebes. When the Sphinx started tormenting his city, he proclaimed that anybody who could solve her riddle could have his crown and the hand of his sister, Jocasta. Oedipus solved the riddle, and Creon proved to be a man of his word. A person who was truly power hungry would've gone back on his promise.

In the last scene of Oedipus the King, Creon also shows himself to be quite forgiving. Rather than mocking Oedipus, who has just accused him of some pretty terrible things, Creon is gentle. He brings the mutilated and grieving Oedipus inside, away from the public eye and also promises to care for the fallen king's children. In the end, it is only at Oedipus's request that Creon banishes him from Thebes.

III.  TEIRESIAS

Teiresias is kind of a cranky old fellow. We can see why. Though he's blind, he can see better than any of those around him. He's in tune with the mind of Apollo and receives visions of the future. Teiresias is also gifted in the magic art of augury, or telling the future from the behavior of birds. You might think these are pretty awesome skills, but it's probably difficult when everybody around you is doomed to shame, death, or mutilation. Not to mention, it must be annoying that whenever Teiresias does drop a little knowledge, people don't believe him. Both Jocasta and Oedipus are skeptical of his prophecies. Oedipus even goes so far as to accuse Teiresias of treason.
The blind seer only shows up for one scene in Oedipus the King, but it really packs a punch. Indeed it's the first real scene where we see any conflict, and as such, is necessary for keeping the audience interested in the play. In this scene, Oedipus gets angry at Teiresias because the prophet won't reveal the identity of Laius's murderer. It's clever of Sophocles to use this scene to show Oedipus's temper. Up until now the king has behaved rationally. He allows the Chorus to speak their mind and is doing his best to save his people. If we didn't see his anger here and later with Creon, we might not believe that Oedipus is capable of the multiple murders at the crossroads.
Probably the most interesting thing about this interchange is Teiresias's attitude towards the art of prophecy. Oedipus has good reason to be angry at him. King Oedipus has in front of him a man with the knowledge needed to save Thebes, but Teiresias won't reveal the necessary information. Instead he tells Oedipus that there's no point in revealing the truth, because everything that's going to happen is just going to happen anyway. Really? So, what is the point of prophets?
Teiresias's ironic attitude, toward revealing prophecy makes him symbolic of the whole conundrum of the play. Is Oedipus responsible for his actions? Yes, Oedipus causes his own downfall, but if he was doomed by the gods from the beginning, is it really his fault? This debate didn't stop with the Greeks – it manifested itself once again in Christian thought, but was defined in terms of predestination vs. free will. Is our fate decided from birth or do we have a choice? This unanswerable question will most likely bug us humans till the end of our days.

IV.  JOCASTA

Jocasta is the Queen of Thebes, but it's just not as glamorous as it sounds. By all accounts, it seems like her first marriage with King Laius was a happy one. That is, until he received the prophecy that he was destined to be murdered by his own son. This, of course, is what caused Jocasta and Laius to pierce and bind their one and only child's ankles and send him off to a mountainside to die. (In Ancient Greece, it was common to abandon unwanted children rather than kill them. That way the child's fate was in the hands of the gods, and the parent wasn't considered directly responsible for its death.)

Sometimes Jocasta is criticized for her distrust of prophecies. It's an understandable prejudice, though. Jocasta doesn't know that the prophecy Laius received came true – she believes her son to be dead and her husband to have been murdered by a band of thieves. This seemingly disproves the prophecy that said Laius would die by his son's hand. As far as Jocasta knows, she abandoned her baby boy to exposure, starvation, and wild beasts for nothing. She has very good reason to be more than a little skeptical of prophets.
It's important to note that though Jocasta is critical of prophecy, she isn't necessarily sacrilegious. In fact, within the play we see her praying to the god Apollo, making offerings, and asking for his protection. No other character, besides the Chorus, goes as far. In a way you could see her as one of the more pious characters onstage. (Not that it does her any good.) It seems that it isn't the gods themselves that Jocasta is skeptical of, but instead their supposed servants – men like Teiresias.
Jocasta realizes before Oedipus that he is her son, and that they have committed incest. When she hangs herself with bed sheets, it is symbolic of her despair over her incestuous actions. Interestingly, Jocasta plays both a spousal and maternal role to Oedipus. She loves Oedipus romantically, but like a parent, she wishes to protect Oedipus's innocence from the knowledge of their relationship.
Like Oedipus, Jocasta commits most of her "sins" in ignorance. Yes, she did abandon Oedipus purposely when he was a baby, but even Oedipus says he wishes he had died on that mountainside.

V.  CHORUS

The Chorus is roughly like the peanut-gallery (it’s even occasionally told to shut up). Sophocles uses this group of Thebans to comment on the play's action and to foreshadow future events. He also uses it to comment on the larger impact of the characters' actions and to expound upon the play's central themes. In Oedipus the King we get choral odes on everything from tyranny to the dangers of blasphemy.
Sophocles also uses the Chorus at the beginning of the play to help tell the audience the given circumstances of the play. We hear all about the terrible havoc that the plague is wreaking on Thebes. By describing the devastation in such gruesome detail, Sophocles raises the stakes for his protagonist, Oedipus. The people of Thebes are in serious trouble; Oedipus has to figure out who killed Laius fast, or he won't have any subjects left to rule.
Unlike his contemporary Euripides, Sophocles was known to integrate his choruses into the action of the play. In Oedipus the King we see the Chorus constantly advising Oedipus to keep his cool. Most of the time in ancient tragedies choruses do a lot of lamenting of terrible events, but do little to stop them. Amazingly, though, the Chorus in Oedipus the King manages to convince Oedipus not to banish or execute Creon. Just imagine how much worse Oedipus would have felt if he'd killed his uncle/brother-in-law on top of his other atrocities.