Oedipus, in his pride, declared without thinking, that not only will he banish this "plague-causer-, but that he curses this man to "drag out his life in agony-. He keeps the secret that he himself has recently killed a man out of anger, but the man who killed the king should be punished. (When he later explains why he didn't punish himself for killing a man, he declares that his temper got the best of him and that the man had provoked him, and so it was justified. His pride kept him from believing he was wrong.) When a blind soothsayer declares that Oedipus is the cause of the plague, his pride swells and he becomes terribly angry. He accuses his brother-in-law of plotting against him, and that he is innocent of all charges. His pride blinds him from connecting the story of when the king was murdered and when he killed a man. Then the story is told of where the murder occurred, and Oedipus finally realizes that he may actually be the cause of the plague. He doesn't think that for sure, however (attributed to his pride that he cannot be wrong unless it is absolutely proven). He brings in a witness, and when the witness agrees that Oedipus killed the king, Oedipus is in "woe-, but still does not believe that the king was his father, as predicted by the oracle. At this point, his wife Jocasta is also guilty of pride- she doesn't belive in what the oracle says either. Since both are too proud and believe themselves above the gods, it takes them a long long time and a couple messengers to comprehend that the oracles were actually correct and they were mother and son as well as husband and wife. The pride of Oedipus brought his downfall.
Shakespeare, on the other hand, uses jealousy as the tragic flaw of Othello. Othello's tragic flaw comes out first when the evil antagonist Iago says he will frame as lovers Othello's wife and Cassius, whom Othello has just stripped of lieutenant. In this soliloquy, Iago states that he will try to make Othello jealous and suspect a relationship between his wife and Cassius.
