english essay

TRAGIC AND MODERN HERO

The tragic hero is a protagonist with a tragic flaw, also known as fatal flaw, which eventually leads to his or her demise. The concept of the tragic hero was created in ancient Greek tragedy and defined by Aristotle. Usually, the realization of fatal flaw results in catharsis or epiphany. The tragic flaw is sometimes referred to as an Achilles' heel after the single fatal flaw of the Greek warrior Achilles.

Aristotelian tragic hero

In a complex Aristotelian tragedy, the hero is of noble birth and is more admirable than ordinary men. He cannot, however, be morally perfect because the best plots arise when his downfall is the inevitable consequence of some defect in character (or tragic flaw).The spectacle of a good man dragged to destruction by a single error arouses in the audience both pity and fear, leading to the catharsis, a psychological state through which those emotions are purged; the audience leaves the theater relieved, or even exalted, rather than depressed. The audience must feel pity and empathy for the protagonist even though there actions would normally indicate the opposite.

Characteristics

An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics: GOVERNED BY DESTINY

1. Nobleness (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth).

2. Hamartia (translated as tragic flaw, somewhat related to hubris, but denoting excess in behavior or mistakes).

3. A reversal of fortune (peripetia) brought about because of the hero's tragic error.

4. The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis)

Common traits/ characteristic of a TRAGIC hero:

· Hero must suffer more than he deserves.

· Hero must be doomed from the start, but bears responsibility for possessing his flaw.

· Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him.

· Hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.

· Hero must see and understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions.

· Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.

· Hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.

· Ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him.

· The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes.

Hamartia

The Greek word that describes what many people refer to as the "tragic flaw" of the hero of Greek tragedy, hamartia has a complex meaning which includes "sin," "error," "trespass," and "missing the mark" (as in archery–missing the bull's-eye). The "mistake" of the hero has an integral place in the plot of the tragedy. The logic of the hero's descent into misfortune is determined by the nature of his or her particular kind of hamartia.

Peripeteia

The reversal of the situation in the plot of a tragedy is the peripeteia. According to Aristotle, the change of fortune for the hero should be an event that occurs contrary to the audience's expectations and that is therefore surprising, but that nonetheless appears as a necessary outcome of the preceding actions.

Anagnorisis

Anagnorisis is the recognition by the tragic hero of some truth about his or her own identity or actions that accompanies the reversal of the situation in the plot, the peripeteia.

In the Modernist era, a new kind of tragic hero was synthesized as a reaction to the English Renaissance, The Age of Enlightenment, and Romanticism. The idea was that the hero, rather than falling calamitously from a high position, is actually a person less worthy of consideration. Not only that, the protagonist may not even have the needed catharsis to bring the story to a close. He may die without an epiphany of his destiny, or suffer without the ability to change events that are happening to him. The story may end without closure and even without the big death of the hero. This new tragic hero of Modernism is the anti-hero.