Empathy is achieved when one experiences direct identification with, understanding of, and vicarious experience of another person's situation, feelings, and motives. In Sophocles's Oedipus the King, it was the character Sophocle's' task to represent the story without deviation, but to do it in such a way as to evoke the most horror, pity and in particular achieve empathy in his audience. The audience feels empathy towards Oedipus as they are able to associate and relate to his human frailties. However it is not only because of these human frailties that the audience feel empathy towards Oedipus, the tragedy's specific purpose as stated by Aristotle is to "arouse the audience to experience pity and fear", through catharsis. Empathy is also brought about through the collective nature of elements in a Greek tragedy, which include the role of hamartia, the character, the chorus and the inevitability of fate.

Hamartia puts...