Othello, by William Shakespeare, and Oedipus King, by Sophocles, are both plays written over two thousand years apart that hold a few differences, and a great deal of similarities. First, the structure of the plot holds true to the form of a tragedy. A tragedy is generally defined as "A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances."" The main character in each, Othello in Othello and Oedipus the King in Oedipus King, both are brought to ruin and suffer extreme sorrow as a consequence of both a tragic flaw, and the inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. Though their tragic flaws are different, they are both human qualities in otherwise diegetic-time period idealistic people (Pre-Christian and Christian times). But even with these tragic flaws, they would probably both still had fallen to the same fate, based on what was prophesied for Oedipus and his ignoring of it, and the ignorance by Othello on what was planned by Othello's antagonist that he was determined to carry out some way. The characters posses other character traits that allow the tragedy to occur. They both act violently and irrationally when confronted with unfavorable circumstances. They also both didn't trust the right people- Othello didn't trust his wife, and Oedipus didn't trust the Oracles, or even Tiresias. This allowed the doorway to unfavorable circumstances to be opened. Neither had a true vision of reality- Oedipus saw only himself through his anger, and did not see all facts pointed to him, and Othello saw only what Iago (his antagonist) presented to him, not what was really the situation. Besides the tragedy aspect of each play, both plays contain situational irony, where the audience knows what is happening is really in contrast to what the characters think is really happening around them.
