Medea, an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides has Medea, a female character as the tragic hero. Many people consider her a wicked villain but they overlook her positive individualities. Medea has three vital characteristics described in Aristotle’s Peotics that makes up a tragic hero. Thus, Medea is a tragic hero with heroic code, superhuman skills and most important of all a tragic misfortune. Every hero requires having certain code of conduct which distinguishes him among ordinary people.
He embodies nobility and seems to possess virtue. He also possesses certain characteristics that we might associate with a tragic hero, in particular a fatal flaw. In the case of Macbeth, that fatal flaw is his ambition for power. Macbeth, however, quickly becomes something of a villainous character. He commits murder and puts his entire kingdom in danger.
ll. For example,Oedipus from Oedipus The King by Sophocles is a well thorough example of a tragic hero, as well as Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Both characters are heroic and important people in their societies as well as admired by readers through the imagery of their action. However, the flaw that each of them have ruins their lives and drives them into pain. Oedipus is a mythical Greek king of a city named Thebes, he fulfills a prophecy that said he would kill his father, and thereby brings a disaster on his city and family.
Antigone Tragic Hero? By Matthew Scully Does Antigone earn the title of tragic hero in Sophocles’ play Antigone? In most Greek tragedies ,the title of the play is the name of the tragic hero. I strongly believe that Antigone is the tragic hero of the play because she has a tragic flaw, the play focuses on mostly her actions, and her story best describes what a Greek tragedy is. The play, Antigone takes place in the Greek city of Argive.
Since the days of Aristotle, the concept of a tragic hero has been a part of storytelling and literature. A tragic, or romantic, hero is someone who begins at a noble position, but has a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to the character’s demise. Often, this character realizes this flaw, but not before it is too late. In Shakespeare’s tragic play, Othello, the title character is a romantic hero. His rapid downfall is a result of his passionate love, so intense that it greatly hinders his rational thought.
In the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Marcus Brutus contains multiple elements that would qualify him as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a man of noble stature who displays hamartia. Hamartia in tragedies is a crime committed in ignorance, also considered a tragic flaw. The hero’s downfall, therefore, is the result of his own catastrophic choices. A tragic hero is a man of noble character who dies because of the decisions he has made, even if the hero’s misfortune was not completely deserved.
Aeschylus (Greek tragic dramatist, 525BC-456BC) said, “For this is tyranny’s disease, to trust no friends”. This is exactly what Julius Caesar should have done; not trusted his friends. In Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, it is often debated who deserves the role of the tragic hero is this tragedy. Caesar’s tragic flaws do lead to his death, but Brutus is the obvious tragic hero. Although Brutus has the characteristics of a great man such as; nobility, idealism and honesty, what makes him the tragic hero of Julius Caesar is his unassuming sincerity and trust.
An example from Oedipus occurs in scene four, when he comes to the realization that he had murdered his own father, and married then his mother. Recognition -- when combined with reversal of the situation -- is said to trigger the emotions of pity and fear (Aristotle 199) this combination is what makes a suitable plot for a legitimate tragedy. A good tragedy must also include character in order to express the purpose of an individual. A good character must be true to life (Aristotle 201). Oedipus is a character that displays trueness to life, for the fact that he is a good person, but he is not perfect.
According to Aristotle’s hypothesis of a tragic hero the character must be of some form of nobility, suffer from some form of error in judgment, go through a period of reversed fortune, and finally recognize that the error was actually caused by his own actions. The concept of tragedy is deeply embedded into both plays however
Arthur Miller’s writing of Death of a Salesman does correctly fit the title of a tragedy because his main character, Willy Loman, does possess the qualities needed to be considered a tragic hero according to modern-day tragic heroes. Hamlet and Oedipus are the well-known tragic heroes from the past. They relate more to Aristotle than Willy Loman does and that is what causes the controversy in these tragedies. Aristotle had written down some of the common tragic hero characteristics for Greek tragedies, but those do not relate to more modern tragedies that have been written. Miller’s main character Willy Loman does deserve to have the title tragic hero.