Oedipus Rex is one of many major classics about a tragic hero. There are many modern tragic heroes but the one character who captivated me the most was Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series. Oedipus and Snape share differences and similarities as tragic heroes. The idea of a tragic hero is simple: a character who makes a misguided decision that winds up to his own extinction. Oedipus Rex is about a man named Oedipus who kills his own father, bares a child with his own mother, and eventually Oedipus loses his kids and his sight. Snape is a man who has lived with pain in the entirety of his life. He loses the love of his life, mistrusted by his allies, is a Death Eater spy for the Order of the Phoenix, has to protect Harry Potter with his life, and is ultimately slaughtered by Voldemort for the wrong reasons.…show more content… King Oedipus was oblivious of his fate and Snape was not. Oedipus was blind to the fact that he killed his own father and the fact that his wife was actually his mother. When the truth was uncovered to Oedipus he tumbled from the greatest man to the kingdom to a failure. This is an example of dramatic irony. While the character is oblivious to what is going on, the audience is fully aware of the situation. Snape, on the other hand, was some what aware of his fate. He knew that eventually he would lose his life for the most imperative character, Harry potter. Snape was fully aware on why he needed to risk his life for a boy and why he had to kill his
