"Pity and Awe, reconciliation, exaltation and a sense of emotion purged and purified thereby"1. As this quote from Aristotle's Poetics states, a tragedy must arouse feelings of pity and fear, thus producing a catharsis of these emotions in the audience. In order to arouse the emotions of the audience or reader, writers must produce characters that are known as tragic heroes. A tragic hero is characterized as the hero of a tragedy who is usually …showed first 75 words of 1524 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1524 total…cause Agamemnon does not. Sophocles proved that there can be two opposing tragic heroes in a tragedy where neither side wins. These writers produced characters that compare and contrast. 1 Aristotle 2 Agamemnon by Aeschylus; translated by Robert Fitzgerald; pg.133 lns794-797 3 Antigone by Sophocles; translated by Robert Fitzgerald and Dudley Fitts pg. 527 lns 5 Scene 4 4 Agamemnon by Aeschylus; translated by Robert Fitzgerald; pg159 ln 1370-1371 5 Antigone by Sophocles; translated by Robert Fitzgerald and Dudley Fitts pg.495 ln. 35 1