The Tragedies of Sophocles and Shakespeare

Therefore, Macbeth's ambition will take a leak an other than noble warrior's industrial plant to end in catastrophe, composition Oedipus' desire to find the truth will undermine his otherwise heroic qualities and cause his ending to be tragic.

We see that twain Macbeth and Oedipus engage in actions which argon serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude. In both tragedies, the protagonists complete crimes of a horrific magnitude. In the causal agency of Macbeth, he kills King Duncan and various others in order to get across the throne. In the case of Oedipus, his actions are without personal motive or intention, but his crimes are of a similar if not worse magnitude, for Oedipus kills his father (also a King), marries his mother and bears children to his mother.

The difference between Macbeth and Oedipus is that Macbeth's crimes are intentional and he knows they are wrong. As he says of kill Duncan, "his virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongu'd, against / The deep damnation of his taking-off" (Shakespeare I.vii.16-20). Oedi

us, in contrast, is unaware of his foul deeds and is driven to his tragedy because of his noble desire to assist his people, "For a man to help others with all his gifts and his native strength; that is the noblest urinate" (Knox 155).

We see that both authors also use language embellished with tasty ornament to describe their tragic figures.

When Macbeth is beginning to be consumed by guilt over his actions, he describes his sleepless state in ornamental language, "Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murther sleep" - the liberal sleep, / Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, / The death of each days life, thin-skinned labor's bath, / Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, / Chief nourisher in life's feast," (Shakespeare II.ii.37-42).

Knox, B. (Ed.). Sophocles: The Three Theban Plays. New York: Viking, 1982.

O'Brien, R. and Dukore, B. F. (Eds.). Tragedy: Ten major(ip) Plays. New York: Bantam, 1969.

In conclusion, we see that both Shakespeare and Sophocles draw tragic figures in their tragedies that are in keeping with the definition of tragedy by Aristotle provided at the outset of this essay. The final element of Aristotle's tragic e
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