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 three elements of tragedy are present.
             Aristotle believed on the requirements of a tragic hero. The tragic hero or protagonist is a noble leader in his society. Although obtaining strong characteristics he also has a tragic flaw (harmatia), an innate flaw in his nature that will drive him to his fall. His fate appears to be alterable to create a sense of opportunity or hope. His society should make him into a scapegoat for the sins and errors of his people and then accordingly be exiled or punished by them in such a way that his suffering is irreversible. His pride or arrogance causes the hero's punishment; but, with his futile struggle with fate he becomes grander and nobler. Along with a tragic hero the emotions of "pity" and "fear" are brought about by two key factors presented in Aristotle's Poetics. One is the reversal of the hero's fortune (peripeteia) that is, some event that definitely starts the hero, who is famous and prosperous, on the road to suffering and misfortune. The other is discovery (ananorisis). This occurs when the hero finds out something important that causes a change within himself to correspond to the outward changes brought on by the reversal. In the best kind of tragedy, reversal and discovery go hand in hand.
             Aristotle says, "the finest form of discovery is one attended by peripeteia [reversals], like that which goes with the discovery in Oedipus"(687). Likewise one...