Despite what the adage says, apples and oranges are comparable. Not only are they fruits farmed to satisfy the average man’s appetite, but both stem from the same roots (quite literally). Apples and oranges start as seeds planted by their creators and eventually grow into complex structures of branches that yield the unique fruits themselves. Like apples and oranges, comedy and tragedy are pictured as opposing concepts: happy and sad. Yet, they are more intertwined than most realize; they both stem from the branches that make up a play’s plot and both serve to satisfy an audience 's emotional appetite. Because of these similarities, it can be hard to distinguish why some plays are more comic or tragic, and while there is no clear-cut formula to differentiate these genres, Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night, and Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus Rex, are the baseline needed to understand each genre’s unique distinctions. Let us assume that a tragic play is one that evokes piety and fear by means of the plot, as described by Aristotle over 2000 years ago. Additionally, let us assume that Oedipus Rex is the real-world application of Aristotle 's definition of a tragedy. Finally, let’s assume that Twelfth Night is the exact application of the definition of comedy, regardless of what that definition may be. With these assumptions, let us analyze the characters of Malvolio and Sir Andrew (the ones considered ‘tragically comic’) in the context of the perfect tragedy, Oedipus Rex, in