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Gladiator Tragic Hero Essay

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Title: must have something to do with Maximus In Roman times, a hero was defined as a mighty warrior who was often the son of god or a king and goes on an epic quest. There are a few different varieties of heros. They are a byronic, anti, and tragic heros. The most popular hero type was a tragic hero. A well known philosopher named Aristotle composed a list of traits a tragic hero must have. This list is as follows; the character must be noble or have wisdom, have a fatal flaw, a reversal of fortune brought about because of the hero’s main error, the hero realizes that the change in their fortune was brought about by their own actions, and they must have a fate that is greater than what they really deserve. In the film Gladiator (1999), a man named Maximus faces many challenges that he has to overcome to get what he wants most, revenge. Going along with Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, I agree with his …show more content…

He was noble and wise. He may not of been born into royalty or nobleness but after being in the war and being loved by the king of Rome, I consider that to be of nobleness. His fatal flaw was loving his family because if he hadn’t talked about wanting to go home to his them or having them as a weakness at all, he never would’ve been so threatened. He makes the mistake of making an enemy of Commodus, the son of the King of Rome. Maximus refused to swear his loyalty to Commodus which put a target on Maximus’ back. He realizes that he should’ve taken the offer from the king of Rome earlier instead of waiting to accept because then he may of never been murdered or the people of Rome would’ve already known of the decision of the new king. Lastly, he was given a fate that was greater than when he deserved. All he ever did was serve Rome and serve the King well. He wanted to keep his family safe and also his men out during the wars they conquered

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