Audiences are drawn to tragedies because a tragedy brings out the true character’s spirit and creates vivid emotions within these characters. Aristotle once stated in his Poetics that a tragedy should “arouse pity and fear in spectators.” For a tragedy to procure such distinct emotions of “pity” and “fear” three elements are needed: a rounded tragic protagonist, a reversal and a discovery. In both Oedipus and The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, these …showed first 75 words of 1058 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1058 total…or made to grieve on account of me. /.../ and that no man remember me” His last wish, to be allowed to die anonymously and to go unremembered, is the ultimate gesture of a man who craves good repute but doubts his own worth. These two pieces of literature, both from different eras, are written along the same lines of tragedy from Aristotle. This is truly the formula to invoke fear and pity within the audience.