Hecuba vs Oedipus: Who is the more tragic character?

Hecuba and Oedipus are both tragic characters. They are relatively good people who have very bad stories. Hecuba lost everything—she was one queen of the Trojans, a mighty woman. She once had sons and daughters who were great and brought her honur. But she lost everything after the Trojan War. Her children were killed, she had to bury them herself. Her nation was no more, she became a slave to the Greeks.

            Oedipus also lost everything, though in a very different way. He started out as the king of Thebes, wealthy and loved by his subjects. He tried to do good and do right by his people as he tried to solve the problem of the plague. However in his quest to help his people and find the murderer of King Laius he uncovered a truth that wrecked him. He found out that he was the murderer of the king, his father, he married his own mother and his children were half siblings. Not only this but previously he had decreed the outlaw of the killer of the King, so once he had uncovered the truth, that he was the murderer, he became outlawed.

            Both Hecuba and Oedipus have tragic, heartbreaking stories. However in my opinion Oedipus is the more tragic of the two. Hecuba does suffer many awful trials, losing her whole family as well as her nation. However in the end she gets her revenge. She also didn’t have a lot of control over her circumstances. There wasn’t a whole lot she could have done to change things. However all of Oedipus’ problems were his own fault even though he didn’t know it. He had a choice of what to do, he could have changed things. Even though he didn’t know his choices would end how they did, he had control of his situation. That is what makes him a more tragic character—his guilt and the “what ifs” that would plague him long after he blinded himself and left his country. He would always know deep down that everything that happened was all his fault—that he brought everything upon himself even though it was unknowingly. That makes him, in my opinion, much more tragic then Hecuba.

Hamartia

Hamartia is the Greek word for “error”, also translated in the New Testament as “sin”. In Greek tragedies there is always some sort of hamartia, usually the catalyst for all the character's problems.

            In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’ hamartia was killing the strangers he encountered on his way back from the oracle. That is where his troubles really begin and that is the mistake that began the fulfillment of his prophecy. If he had not killed the men on the road, one of which we know was his father, the king would have still been alive in Thebes. Once he had solved the riddle of the Sphinx and freed the people there would not have been a crown for Oedipus to take. If he hadn't become king, he wouldn't have married his mother and born children who were really half siblings. Killing the king was the start of the fulfillment of the prophecy and that is where all Oedipus’ troubles stem from.

            It is possible to argue that Oedipus was fully justified in killing these men—they had run him off the road by force and when the old man passed Oedipus he “struck [Oedipus] on the head with the two-pronged goad” (line 837). The driver provoked him and so did the others. Of course Oedipus was angry about this, especially after the prophecy he had just been told. He of course did not consider killing those men a mistake, it seems he didn’t think much about it at all until he realises one of those men could have been Laius. However this is still in some ways the turning point of the story, the error that starts everything else going. This is Oedipus’ great error even though he doesn’t realise it at the time.

Emily's Epithets

Cold Canadian

I am from Canada--Winnipeg, Manitoba. I absolutely love it there. It is very cold there in the winter and I can't say that I love the cold or the snow but I do definitely prefer a cold winter to a super hot summer. So going to BYU I get the best of both worlds--I'm home for the summer when it's not too hot but here in Utah for the winter when it's not very cold.

Lover of dance

I absolutely love dance. I have been dancing my whole life and I am a dance major. My focus in contemporary but I have done a lot of ballet and jazz as well and I am doing my second semester of tap right now. My dream is to become a really good hip hop dancer as well but I'm still working on that. When people ask me what I do for fun or what my hobbies are I always say dance.

Reader of books

I really enjoy reading books. My favourite books are probably the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu and the Graceling series by Kristin Cashore, although now that I'm thinking about it there are a lot of other books that are right up there with these ones. My mom is a librarian at a high school so her love of books fuels mine and I never have a very difficult time convincing her to buy me books.

Middle child

I am the middle child out of three. I have an older sister who is a fine arts major back home and a little brother who is in his second year of high school. Me and my younger brother are pretty close, we're both dancers and he absolutely loves to bug me and knows exactly how. Me and my sister are close as well, especially when we were younger and it would be us girls against the one boy, my little brother.