The Tragic Man

A belief in his own freedom-
Oedipus has a strong belief in his own freedom. He believes that he has the freedom and power to escape the fate that has been set down by the Gods and create his own destiny. Little does he know that in trying to escape the prophecy, he fufills it. Yet even then he takes responsibility for his own actions and follows through with his own punishment.

Pride- Oedipus has a strong Pride too. He thinks that he is great enough and smart enough to escape the prophecy (which he isn't) He tries to play the part of the hero all the times, and attempts to do good whenever it is possible. He pretty much tries to be perfect, which is impossible. He also has great pride when Tiresias accuses him of being the one who is cursing the land. When Tiresias asks him if truth has any power to save, Oedipus gets angry and prideful, acting a bit childish when he says, "It does- but not for you; no, not for you, shameless and brainless, sightless, senseless sot." He even goes as far as to say that perhaps Tiersias is actually the one who committed the crime and he is just blaming Oedipus to cover it up.

Sense of Commitment- Oedipus has a sense of commitment in that even when he finds out that he is in fact the murderer that he has been searching for, he still follows through with his original ruling and punishes himself to the full extent of the sentence, if not more. He refuses to soften the blow of the punishment just because he is punishing himself and not another person. It is easy to sentence and follow through with the discipline of another person, but it takes a great amount of commitment and courage to give the same punishment to yourself. He also has a sense of commitment early on in the story when he is trying to find the murderer. Even when people tell him that he doesn't want to know the answer and that he will be much better off if he abandons his search, he still continues to pursue his goal, keeping true to the promise he gave to his people.

Vigerous Protest- The vigerous protest is shown when Oedipus is first accused of being the offender. He gets angry at Tiersias and tells him that there is no possible way that he could be the person who killed Lauis. Oedipus can't believe that the prophet would even dare to consider blaming him.

Transfiguration- Oedipus is very different at the end of the book than he is at the beginning. At the beginning he is this high and mighty king. He can solve any problem, conquer any feat. He is invincable. Yet by the end he realizes that he is no better than any common man. He tried and he failed, he made mistakes just like any other person. He realizes that he cant do anything, and that he can't be perfect. He is wrong, and is worthy of punishment just like any other person. If Oedipus had done nothing, not tried to play the part of a hero, not tried to create his own fate, and not tried to make everything perfect, things would have ended up fine. He wouldn't have killed his father and he wouldn't have married his mother. But then he would never have learned anything. In making his mistakes, he learned, and it changed him. That is where the transfigurataion takes place.

Impact- The impact comes from the transfiguration. He realizes that he is simply a man. He isn't some great hero who can conquer anything, and he can't escape from his predestined fate. He is just a person like any one of us and has to learn from his mistakes, and suffer the consequences just like any normal person.