Tragic heroes are characters that make judgement errors that leads to their downfall or destruction. The tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet is a prime example of a tragic hero. Shakespeare portrayed Romeo and Juliet as victims that captured the audience's hearts. The book Inherit the wind written by Jerome Lawrence, and Robert E. Lee, is no love story, and the main character Matthew Harrison Brady is no Romeo; however Brady does meet Aristotle's criteria to be considered a tragic hero.
What makes a hero? The novel Things Fall Apart follows the story of a man named Okonkwo, who grew up with a father who was kind, and generous, but was a so dependent on other people and did not pay back any of his debts as well. It was because of Okonkwo’s father that he became the man that he was, Okonkwo felt that since his father was kind and generous he had to be the exact opposite, so he became a hard working young man, but also became violent and aggressive, he lived in fear that he would be buried with shame as his father was, even though he had taken on many titles. Odysseus was quite the opposite though, from the story The Odyssey, was extremely different, he was clever, and kind. Odysseus was ripped away from his son, Telemachus, and his wife, Penelope, and spent twenty years trying to find
A hero is a person who is recognized or idealized for his or her outstanding achievements and noble qualities. The deaths of his men are the result of Odysseus’ weaknesses. The possession of the character trait, arrogance, does not help him in escaping, but rather puts him closer to danger. Another trait that ends up killing a number of his men is his lack of leadership skills, or rather the lack of respect and trust from his men. In some parts of this epic poem, Odysseus also displays the characteristic, foolishness, in which that also results in the deaths of a number of his men.
Aristotle’s ideal image of a tragic hero is someone pure hearted, an inspiration, and royalty with a tragic flaw. A tragic flaw consists of weaknesses like hubris, ruthless ambition, or jealousy. The story all began when Oedipus fulfilled his legacy and then had four children, Antigone, Ismene, Polyneices, and Eteocles. Polyneices and Eteocles got into an argument which results in both of them killing each other and Creon is left as the new King of Thebes; however, Creon only buries Eteocles body and leaves Polyneices body to rot outdoors. This starts conflict within the family.
Even though there are two possible tragic heroes, each has an important goal. A tragic hero is a character who exhibits the characteristics of a powerful person who meets a terrible downfall. In “Antigone” by Sophocles, the turmoil of characters' opinions about the laws of men versus the laws of the gods is about which is more important. Crucial differences in religion, social class, and wisdom reveal the true tragic hero. Antigone and Creon have great differences.
As defined by Aristotle, a tragic hero is one who is not entirely good or evil. They are an individual who experiences a “reversal of fortune through a fault of character or an uncontrollable accident” (Boucquey). He or she undergoes a dramatic change from happiness to misery (Boucqyey). In Sophocles’ Antigone, Creon is the tragic hero. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero should contain four traits: goodness, appropriateness, lifelike, and consistency, which Creon most prominently displays.
Tragedy has been a part of drama since the time of the ancient greeks, an example of such a tragedy is Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Since then tragedy has been adapted to adhere to different societal views and conventions, such that of the american theatre. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, is an example of that. Both plays fall into the category of tragedy, but exemplify it through different aspects in their respective heroes. The roles of Oedipus and Willy Loman as tragic heroes convey the meanings of the works as wholes through the use of the literary devices dramatic irony and imagery.
A tragic hero is described as having excessive curiosity and being stubborn; these flaws negatively impact the story by not learning from his mistakes. Odysseus shows his heroic characteristics when “Cyclops, if anyone asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.” Odysseus is a tragic hero because he is always curious and is sometimes stubborn. Most of the time he puts his life or one of his men`s at risk.
A person realizes that Okonkwo is a willing character due to his willingness to follow his society’s rules, strong devotion to culture and keeping it alive, and accepting the sickened dying state of his culture. As a result, a reader can conclude Okonkwo fits the traits of a willing character more than Odysseus fits the traits of an epic
Ancient greece evoked many things, and one of them was tragic hero. Tragic hero is someone who can be noble, tragic flaw, reversal of fortune, suffers, recognition, and catharsis. Noble, is someone that is important, they have a high status, and hold an official title. Reversal of fortune is when someone’s life is good at the beginning and ends up being bad or someone life is bad and ends up good. Suffering, is someone who is feeling pain and hurting.
Oedipus the King and The Odyssey share many similarities. For instance both start out with conflict, In Oedipus the king the conflict emerges as the plague is destroying Thebes, while in The Odyssey the conflict emerges after Odysseus has finished fighting in the war and tries to return home. “I do pity you children. Don’t’ think I’m unaware.
Chinua Achebe successfully defines Okonkwo as a tragic hero through his role as a protagonist of high estate, his possession of a tragic flaw, and the recognition of his fate, which relates to the novel
Aristotle describes a Tragic Hero as a man of high rank who exhibit a tragic flaw, other wise known as “hamartia,” who goes through a dramatic change, or “peripeteia,” and a moment of recognition, an“anagnorisis.” Okonkwo displays all these characteristic which, by Aristotle 's definition, makes him a tragic hero. He is a hardworking man and one of the leaders of Umuofia. His tragic flaw is his fear of failure and being seen as weak. He gets cast out of his village for seven years because of an accidental murder.
(Butcher, 2000). It is due to his hubris or hamartia , he commits a crime. He then undergoes through pain and suffering and learns a fundamental truth of life. In short , tragic hero is a person who makes error in his jugdement which leads to downfall of himself in end (Aristotle,n.a) and ends usually with death of protagonist with evocation of pity and fear among the reader. However, Okonkwo does have few traits of tragic hero.
The characters in Oedipus the King develop the plot and make it a complete tragedy. Oedipus, had some undesirable flaws as well as some good characteristics. Oedipus had a flaring temper that ruined his life. We all learned that having a bad attitude doesn’t get you anywhere in life. Oedipus was also arrogant, especially after defeating the Sphinx.
