Abstract
This paper reevaluates the fundamental status of Coleman Silk in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain and Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex by testing their characters against Aristotelian tragic hero's elements. In spite of the verifiable comparisons to Oedipus, Coleman is not a neglected figure, but a subverted one that underpins Roth's proposal of "the different nature" of inconceivable postmodern American tragedy. In Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, the protagonist Coleman Silk is implicitly linked to Sophocles' classical figure Oedipus in Oedipus Rex. The plot is interwoven with allusions to Greek tragedies, but in The Human Stain Coleman lacks the stature and the real character of Oedipus. In addition, Coleman lacks, to some extent, the real elements of a tragic hero that constitute the Catharsis: the process of releasing and providing relief; a conflict which raises the question; is Coleman really a tragic hero? According to Aristotle, the tragic hero should experience a dilemma and a massive transformation from valuable standards to lower depth, and this person should suffer particularly after committing a mistake, or even thinking about his past deeds. The tragic hero should be relatively a commendable person whose comeuppance is brought about by his own fallacies which he did not commit out of defect or wickedness, but out of his own serendipity. Following the ancient Greek concept which asserts that fluke is associated with actions, Coleman is a fortuitous man at first, unlike Oedipus, despite being born as a black man. Because of this unlucky fact, he is capable of changing his identity and rising up to the level of preeminence.
Highlights
Greek mythologies through Sophocles' literary and dramatic works have enriched the world with endless ideas and numerous provoking thoughts
The idea of the tragic hero originally stems from the early literary works of Sophocles, as a practical part of Aristotle's theoretical definitions: Sophocles was born into a wealthy family; Sophocles was fortunate enough to enjoy all the luxuries of the late 5th century BC Greek lifestyle
The Human Stain is linked to Sophocles' Oedipus through the approach of intertextuality
Summary
Greek mythologies through Sophocles' literary and dramatic works have enriched the world with endless ideas and numerous provoking thoughts. The Human Stain is linked to Sophocles' Oedipus through the approach of intertextuality This approach links two different literary works together in a way that explains the main attitudes of the heroes of the novel and; it demonstrates the extended roots of each character. It's the vertical hub that gives us our definition of intertextuality She emphasizes that no content exists from a scratch and that we need to recognize how existing works shape current writings and readings. When scholars borrow from past writings, their works obtain more layers of meanings and philosophical ideas She believes that writers do not create their fiction out of their own imagination, but rather inspire them from pre-written texts. Barthes warns that from the perspective of intertextuality 'the quotations of which a text is made are anonymous, untraceable, and already read'; they function this is the crucial thing as 'already read. (Kiebuzinska , 2001, p. 103)
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