Oedipus the King is a classic Greek Tragedy. It follows the unities that the Greek's had to follow, it takes place in a 24 hour time period, only one location, and only one plot. Oedipus' major down fall is pride this is also the downfall of every other protagonist in Greek tragedy. Oedipus was fated to marry his mother, kill his father, and to bear kids with his mother. This fate he could not avoid exactly as every other major character in Greek tragedy could not avoid his downfall. In the Greek Tragedies fate played the biggest role of all. Fate being completely unavoidable. Oedipus was completely oblivious to the fact that he killed his father and that he married his own mother He was even to proud to admit that he did all this when the highest and most respected oracle, Tiresias, told him. Tiresias had never been wrong and Oedipus accuses him of being a liar and taking mone

y from Creon to tell him that. "Creon, the soul of trust, my loyal friend from the start steals against me... so hungry to overthrow me he sets this wizard on me, this scheming quack, this fortune-teller peddling lies, eyes peeled for his own profit--seer blind in his craft!" Oedipus rose to power when he answered the riddle of the sphinx, here he became King because the true king was dead. This rise then fall seems to draw a watcher in and make them feel more pity for Oedipus.

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, however the main character, Willy Loman, is not a man of high standing, he is a simple salesman. He could have prevented his downfall completely. However pride caused him no to take a job with his brother in law, and earned the $50 a week he was borrowing anyways. Miller tried to return somewhat to Greek tragedy, he only used one plot and the time period over which he uses in his play is much shorter than the span of Lear, yet it still takes place in more than a day. Willy Loman is the cause of his own downfall, committing suicide in the end thinking the $20,000 life insurance policy he has is the only way to provide for his family. Little does he know however that if its proven that he committed suicide the insurance policy does not pay off. He spends most of the play striving for his sons' lov

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Approximate Word count = 887
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)