Oedipus: Comparison. Jaournal 2.

I am going to compare Oedipus to Othello. Othello is a treagedy where jealousy drives him mad and he ends up killing his love. I don't remember too much from this book. I remember that there was symbolism used in it, for the handkerchief. I also remember that it was written with flowery language, like most Shakesperian plays.

One thing that is similar for these two stories is that the woman in each play is given an innocent feel and they seem to be wise. In Othello, Desdemona was an innocent girl, she died a virgin and always does what she thinks is best for Othello. In Oedipus, thoug Jocasta is not the classical version of innocent, her words have a tone that emphasize her wisdom and kindness to all. This is similar to Desdemona because they both wish to do what is best, though they may not always make the right decisions.

Something that is different between these two plays is that Othello realizes that he is wrong in the very end and the suspense is built up all the way to the end of the play. In Oedipus the audeince is given the accusation and the drama and then a possible (and probable) answer is immediately posed. The reason for this may be because the Greek tragedies were the starting blocks that the rest of the tragedies throughout history come from, therefore they are the starting blocks and aren't as developed as the later ones.

In both stories there is always an antagonist, but in Othello the antagonist, Iago, is purely evil, while in Oedipus, the antagonist is only the antagonist because the king wrongly accused him. In Oedipus this shows that people should account for their enemies as their own mistakes, while in Othello it shows that your enemies are made and there is virtually nothing that a person can do about it.

It is hard for me to remember other comparisons between these two books because I read Othello about a year ago. If I come up with any more I will add on to this.