A tragic hero is a literary character of noble birth who makes a judgment error or mistake that leads to their inevitable downfall. Tragic heroes always have a tragic flaw that ultimately causes their own suffering. Authors use tragic heroes to show readers their own perspective on flaws in human nature and to make readers feel related too because they aren’t alone with their flaws. The three main theories of the tragic hero are the Aristotelian model (Greek), the Shakespearean model (Elizabethan), and the modern tragic hero. Each model has five defining characteristics, which are nobility, hamartia, downfall, anagnorisis, and suffering. In the Shakespearean model of tragedy, the play Romeo and Juliet best models the tragic hero. For instance, …show more content…
An example of a real life Shakespearean tragic hero is Princess Diana. To begin, Princess Diana was born as Diana Frances Spencer to Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp and Frances Ruth Burke Roche, Viscountess Althorp on July 1, 1961 in Sandringham, England (Biography.com). When Spencer was 14, her paternal grandfather passed away, making her father become Earl Spencer and making Diana become Lady Diana. The Spencers lived in close proximity to the royal family, and Lady Diana became the playmate of Prince Andrew while her older sister, Lady Sarah, began dating Prince Charles, Their romance was short lived however in 1977, Lady Sarah introduced Lady Diana to Prince Charles at a pheasant hunt at Althorp (Encyclopedia). As heir to the British throne, Prince Charles’ entire life was documented by the press, and his relationship with Diana was no different. Paparazzi pictures of the odd couple scattered newspapers all over Great Britain, especially when Prince Charles proposed at a barbecue in 1980 (Chalfont), just after Lady Diana turned 19. The couple got married July 29, 1981 and Lady Diana earned the title Diana, Princess of Wales. As Princess, Spencer used her celebrity to raise awareness for issues like homelessness, leprosy awareness, mental health and cancer (Danitz). One of her most notable achievements was her work raising awareness about HIV, a sexually transmitted infection that can progress into AIDS, an autoimmune disorder. In 1987, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, Princess Diana made history by opening the very first HIV/AIDS unit at London Middlesex Hospital. Because of her work with a long list of charities, Princess Diana continued to earn the love of the people and even after being born into a noble family, she worked her way up and achieved a higher status through her