Although the tragic hero normally describes a literary character, the concept of a tragic hero can be applied to real life people in history. For example, Napoleon is military genius who brought France to the world stage as never before through his wars. Napoleon, a man who started as an average boy from Corsica rose to the highest echelons of power and nobility in France through revaluation, conquest, and talent (cite 3). However, Napoleon's hamartia,or tragic flaw, was his greatest asset and his greatest hindrance he was a general like no other at his time; a tactician who won even when He was outnumbered unfortunately, this also led to him overextending the French empire and his armies leading to his downfall (cite 2). Additionally, Napoleon's conquests led to a broken army and overwhelming …show more content…
Eventually, a large coalition of many European countries declared war on France to stop Napoleon’s expansion that threatened to crush Napoleon’s France (cite 4). Toward the end of his reign, Napoleon realized his Anagnorisis and that had failed and tried to places his son on the throne (cite 3). Finally, at the battle of Waterloo as Napoleon almost broke the English lines, Prussian reinforcements arrived and broke Napoleon's army returning France to a monarchy. Afterward, he was forced into exile for the rest of his days to suffer(cite 5). Thus, Napoleon and his image of a united Europe under France were crushed as his armies had been. Napoleon would spend the rest of his days on the island of St. Helena where he died Thus, Napoleon was a more Shakespearean tragic hero. Napoleon existed as a tragic hero because