Oedipus, like many men, has his flaws. His tragic flaw is what makes him a tragic hero and what leads to his downfall. From his rashness to overbearing pride, Oedipus is not perfect. And it is these flaws that bring his expected descend from glory, not destiny nor fate. It wasn’t fate that caused him to kill Laius, or took him down the path to Thebes, or even to leave his home land with no prior plan to go anywhere, it was his rashness and pride that caused him to act out on anger and little thinking.
This action leads to him being considered a tragic hero. Creon’s human flaw of arrogance causes him to ignore reasoning and advice and listen only to his own thoughts. He states, "My voice is the one voice giving orders in this city". He is afraid to go back on his word because it will hurt his pride and he is afraid that it will cause him to lose power with his subjects. This action causes him to lose everyone that he loves.
Caesar tells Artemidorus, “What touches us ourself shall be last served” (JC. 3.1.7). Caesar is so arrogant that he doesn’t even have the decency to accept help when it is handed to him. Caesar doesn’t realize that his hubris is going to kill him. His hubris is his tragic flaw, and the conspirators don’t like.
Put together, his mistake and sense of arrogance magnify his tragic flaw. Throughout the story, Oedipus is not only arrogant but also obnoxious, childish, self absorbed, and willfully blind to the truth. All of these characteristics lead to his ruin. They demonstrate that Oedipus is far from perfect. Exemplifying these qualities enable Oedipus to set himself up for a great fall.
“I'm Andy, he screamed wordlessly, I'm Andy.” (P. 196) He began to hate his identity as a Royal and he want to die as Andy. Being a Royal was not important for Andy anymore. Being himself meant much more than being a Royal. At the same time, he also realized that he was going to miss a lot of meaningful things that he hadn’t even started yet. He was mourning how short to end up his life.
While that may have been the final contribution to his death, his tragic flaw is what is shown throughout the play. This flaw can be plainly stated as Romeo being far too impulsive. He seems to be driven by the idea of fate, and does not thoroughly think about his decisions. His character in the play thinks of life and love as such a quick thing, as if he is thinking to himself that if he doesn’t go with his instincts, his life will not be decent or respectable. When truthfully, these instincts are the origin of his dire choices, resulting in the end of his life.
At this point, Asbury feels very disheartened in his life for the things he has done. “What’s wrong with me is way beyond you” (O’Connor 95). Which means, Asbury chose his fate by not letting a doctor see him in person, which then brought Asbury down into a huge dump, making him feel more disappointed for what he has done. Secondly, he took a dangerous risk of drinking unpasteurized milk to make him suffer throughout this illness, “We’ve got to think free if we want to live free” (O’Connor 98)! Again, through Asbury’s mind he thought wrong when it’s not going to hurt his mother to lose two or three glasses of milk a day, when really it hurt Asbury himself by drinking the outdated milk, to make Asbury the person he is now.
This clearly shows their rashness and failure to act logically in drastic situations, which they obviously fail to comprehend. Everyone finds reason to believe that death ultimately concludes because of their biased society, but it is this failure to admit their flaws that compels them to kill themselves, and thus by definition excludes the play from the
Imperfections within the personality of the hero are revealed to the audience to be the ultimate cause of their downfall. In a typical situation it involves the hamartia and uncontrollable emotions which lead to errors in judgement or arguments and deaths in the hero or surrounding characters. In Oedipus's case, he is portrayed to be irritable and have a very hubris nature. Oedipus is not
Iago noticeably dominates this passage; his comments slip from general conversation to sharp, cynical comments with regards to women. The comments could be seen as blasé, not on closer inspection highlight an underlying emotion and drive. Iago is possibly one of Shakespeare’s most heinous villains due to his apparent lack of any motivation for his actions within the play. Perhaps it is because Iago never clearly voices his motivation that makes the character so shocking, he is willing to take revenge on anyone and he lacks any real moral judgement. Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, Roderigo and even Emilia all fall victims to his ill will, sometimes down to the slightest provocation and the character obviously enjoys bringing pain and damage to those who fall foul of him.