Literary Theory and Criticism. Further, the hero should not only be eminent but also basically a good man, though not absolutely virtuous. The hero should neither be a villain nor a wicked person for his fall, otherwise his death would please and satisfy our moral sense without generation the feelings of pity, compassion and fear. Therefore, the ideal tragic hero should be basically a good man with a minor flaw or tragic trait in his character.
The entire tragedy should issue from this minor flaw or error of judgment. Othello kills himself in order to take responsibility for killing Desdemona. Othello is a tragedy because it tells the story of a noble, principled hero who makes a tragic error of judgment, leading to a devastating climax in which most of the characters end up either dead or seriously wounded. Twelfth Night can be considered a model Shakespearean comedy in that it employs nearly every feature of the genre: a wedding, mistaken identities, misunderstandings, physical comedy, and a happy ending.
Shakespearean comedies often take place in societies where the social order is out of whack. Many of the characters seem to view love as a kind of curse, a feeling that attacks its victims suddenly and disruptively. Various characters claim to suffer painfully from being in love, or, rather, from the pangs of unrequited love.
The main theme of Twelfth Night is that of a romantic comedy revolved around love where some characters find love but at the same time it also depicts pain to some due to disguise and betrayal by fellow humans. The love triangle is complete: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Cesario—and everyone is miserable.
Remember, Orsino is the powerful Duke of Illyria and a bachelor, who persists in pursuing his love for Olivia in spite of her continuing rejection of him. He is melodramatic, self-indulgent, and so absorbed in his own fantasies that he cannot recognize that it is not Olivia he is in love with, but love itself. When Olivia wants to let Cesario know that she loves him, she sends him a ring by way of Malvolio. In each case, the jewel serves as a token of her love—a physical symbol of her romantic attachment to a man who is really a woman.
The gifts are more than symbols, though. Malvolio is very rigid and conservative, and he does not approve of drunkenness, singing, or joking around. They explain why his plot arc works and contribute to the humor of the trick. Summary: Act III, scene iv. Olivia, who sent a servant after the departing Cesario to persuade him to return, tries to figure out how to woo him to love her. Feeling suddenly melancholy, Olivia sends for Malvolio because she wants someone solemn and sad to help with her strategy.
He wants to go out and explore the city, but Antonio declines to join him because he is afraid of being caught in Illyria because he has had a conflict with Orsino in the past. Sebastian decides to go out by himself, agreeing to meet Antonio back at an inn called Elephant. As she explains to Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, Malvolio is a puritan, but at the same time his biggest weakness is his enormous ego: he believes that everybody loves him. Maria will use that weakness to get her revenge on him for spoiling their fun.
In Greek tragedy, the tragic hero: Is a male character, usually a noble, who suffers a reversal of fortune. Makes a consequential mistake. Experiences a downfall as a result of his hubris excessive pride Typically dies in the end. Hamartia as it pertains to dramatic literature was first used by Aristotle in his Poetics. The term covers deeds that are unworthy of a hero. His outline consisted of five things all tragedies should have characterized for their main tragic hero.
Hamartia — It is the tragic flaw that causes downfall of a hero. Hubris — It is excessive pride and disrespect of hero for natural order. The final part of this project establishes Sophocles' King Oedipus as a tragic hero on the Aristotelian model. The tragic action of Oedipus the King clearly follows the pattern of decision, illumination, and catharsis.
Oedipus' error of judgment leads to incontinence with qualification in respect to anger. When he leaves Thebes at the end of the tragic action of Oedipus the King, Oedipus sees with a deep inner vision, speaks with the voice of practical wisdom, and rightfully claims a solitary self.
Plato to the contrary, Aristotle's point that poetry does not work at cross-purposes to philosophy is well taken. Tragic poetry complements philosophy by showing its inner face. This might mean that a tragic hero could be regular person who lacks typical heroic qualities, or perhaps even a villainous or or semi-villainous person. Nevertheless, the essence of a tragic hero in modern times maintains two key aspects from Aristotle's day: The tragic hero must have the sympathy of the audience.
The tragic hero must, despite their best efforts or intentions, come to ruin because of some tragic flaw in their own character.
Tragic Hero, Antihero, and Byronic Hero There are two terms that are often confused with tragic hero: antihero and Byronic hero. Antihero : An antihero is a protagonist who lacks many of the conventional qualities associated with heroes, such as courage, honesty, and integrity, but still has the audience's sympathy. An antihero may do the right thing for the wrong reason. Clint Eastwood's character in the western film, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly , is fundamentally selfish.
He digs up graves to look for gold and kills anyone who gets in his way, so he's definitely a bad guy. But as an antihero, he's not completely rotten: he also shows a little sympathy for dying soldiers in the bloody war going on around him, and at the end of the film he acts mercifully in choosing not to kill a man who previously tried to kill him. He does a few good things, but only as long as it suits him—so he's a classic antihero. Byronic hero : A Byronic hero is a variant of the antihero.
Named after the characters in the poetry of Lord Byron, the Byronic hero is usually a man who is an intelligent, emotionally sensitive, introspective, and cynical character. While Byronic heroes tend to be very charismatic, they're deeply flawed individuals, who might do things that are generally thought of as socially unacceptable because they are at odds with mainstream society.
A Byronic hero has his own set of beliefs and will not yield for anyone. While it might not be initially apparent, deep down, the Byronic hero is also quite selfish. Tragic Hero Examples Tragic Heroes in Drama The tragic hero originated in ancient Greek theater, and can still be seen in contemporary tragedies. Oedipus as Tragic Hero in Oedipus Rex The most common tragic flaw or hamartia for a tragic hero to have is hubris , or excessive pride and self-confidence.
Willy Loman as Tragic Hero in Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller wrote his play Death of a Salesman with the intent of creating a tragedy about a man who was not a noble or powerful man, but rather a regular working person, a salesman. Tragic Heroes in Literature Tragic heroes appear all over important literary works.
Additional Examples of Tragic Heroes Macbeth: In Shakespeare's Macbeth , the main character Macbeth allows his and his wife's ambition to push him to murder his king in order to fulfill a prophecy and become king himself. Macbeth commits his murder early in the play, and from then on his actions become bloodier and bloodier, and he becomes more a villain than a hero. Nonetheless, he ends in death, with his wife also dead, and fully realizing the emptiness of his life.
Macbeth is a tragic hero, but the play is interesting in that his fatal flaw or mistake occurs relatively early in the play, and the rest of the play shows his decline into tragedy even as he initially seems to get what he seeks the throne.
Michael Corleone: The main character of the Godfather films, Michael Corleone can be said to experience a tragic arc over the course of the three Godfather movies.
Ambition and family loyalty push him to take over his mafia family when he had originally been molded by his father to instead "go clean. He dies, alone, thinking of his lost loves , a tragic antihero. Okonkwo: In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart , Okonkwo is a man of great strength and will, and these heroic traits make him powerful and wealthy in his tribe. But his devotion to always appearing strong and powerful also lead him to alienate his son, break tribal tradition in a way that leads to his exile from the tribe, and to directly confront white missionaries in a way that ultimately leads him to commit suicide.
Okonkwo's devotion to strength and power leads to his own destruction. Anakin is both powerful in the force and a prophesied "chosen one," but his ambition and desire for order and control lead him to abandon and kill fellow Jedi, inadvertently kill his own wife, and to join the dark side of the force and become a kind of enforcer for the Emperor.
Anakin, as Darth Vader, is alone and full of such shame and self-hatred that he can see no other option but to continue on his path of evil. This makes him a tragic hero. Having said all that, some would argue that the first three Star Wars movies aren't well written or well acted enough to truly make Anakin a tragic hero does Anakin really ever have the audience's sympathy given his bratty whininess?
What's the Function of a Tragic Hero in Literature? Tragic Heroes on YouTube: A one-minute, animated explanation of the tragic hero. Is Macbeth a Tragic Hero? This video explains what a tragic hero is, using Macbeth as an example. Cite This Page. Sign up.
0コメント