Whether it be Sophocles or Shakespeare tragedies, they resemble the rendering of human suffering and a man’s destiny. However, a closer look into the features of a tragic drama between a classic Greek tragedy and a Shakespearean tragedy has noticeable differences.
Sophocles tragedies were laid upon the inscrutable power of Fate or Destiny, capable of bringing about havoc and ruin to human life. For example, when Antigone commits a sin in such ignorance that the impression of a sinister destiny that rules her life is paramount. Sophocles tragedies were clearly represented in the plot and easily interpreted by the audience, unlike Shakespeare’s whose takes a different approach. I prefer Sophocles writing over Shakespeare because it is clearer
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Something dramatic has already happened before the play begins. For example, in the beginning of “Hamlet” Prince Hamlet was summoned home to Denmark from Germany to attend his father’s funeral. Unlike in “Antigone” the tragedy opens up with Antigone explaining that she will rise up alone against the king and die young. Shakespeare’s plots are known to move in a complex manner. Shakespeare was known to follow the model of Aristotelian tragedy (tragic hero). All of Shakespeare’s play has a protagonist that has a tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall. In Shakespeare’s plays, however, the tragic flaws are less recognizable than Sophocles. In Sophocles tragedy’s he had a tendency to exaggerate the flaw, while Shakespeare keeps it more real. Shakespeare loved to make a complicated plot with many sub-plots in order to make the play more real, which is another reason why I prefer Sophocles’ writing over Shakespeare’s because it is easier for me to follow. He used comic relief to set up the plot and emphasized the tragedy, therefore made it more entertaining for the audience. At the end of his tragedies, he leaves the play unfinished and the audience remaining in awe at the absolute destruction of the protagonist, however this could easily leave the viewer