ituation is very sad and causes the audience to feel pity for him. Fear is also brought about in both these works of literature and for the same reason; the audience sees their own susceptibleness to the flaws. The flaws of these men were not off the wall types of problems. A quick temper and pride are things that everybody can relate to. For Oedipus, just letting his temper get the best of him one time was enough to ruin him and the people he cares about. For Okonkwo, something that he uses to drive himself to excel also pushes him to suicide. These two works cause the audience to sit back and examine their own lives for their own faults. It is very scary to see the lives of Oedipus and Okonkwo end in such disastrous ways for what seems to be minor problems in their character. Having a quick temper and a prideful ego are things that plague everybody. Every person, at least once in his or her life, is guilty of rising to anger too quickly or being too prideful. It is very frightening to realize that the fate of the heros could just as easily be yours. It is a very powerful thing for one piece of work to be able to cause the audience to feel these two very different emotions. The first is pity for the character that was to go through it and wondering why does it have to happen like that. The feeling of fear then comes over the audience. The fear of falling into the same fate as the hero. In order to bring about such dramatic responses from the audience, the story has to be set up in a very effective and efficient way. Aristotle has defined this manner so easily for us in The Poetics. The protagonist of a good tragedy should be a person of power and of good character. In this good character there must be a flaw of which, most often, he is unaware. The hero then comes to recognize that mistake, and when he does, his fortunes should take a dramatic turn for the worse. This is the guide by which all tragedies are based. Both Sophocles Oed...
