Matt Spencer English10 Honors Mrs.DeMartino May 22 2012 Antigone: a tragic hero? A hero is a brave person who is greatly admired. A tragic hero is a protagonist in a tragedy who exhibits two certain qualities. These qualities include someone who is doomed from the beginning (despite noble intentions) and, most of all, someone who has a tragic flaw. A tragic flaw is a flaw in a character that is the cause of a downfall of the tragic hero in a tragedy.
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. A tragic hero is defined as; (http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html) usually of noble birth, hamartia (the tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall. ), peripeteia (a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero’s tragic flaw)his actions result in an increase of self- awareness and self-knowledge, and the audience must feel pity and fear for this character. Brutus, as well as Caesar, are both impeccable candidates for a tragic hero. The difference is who was more tragic or which character evoked more pity and fear.
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.
who hides and what is hidden? how does deceit function in the world of the play, and how does it help the play comment on life in general? a central motif in the play is trickery or deceit, whether for good or evil purposes. counterfeiting, or concealing one's true feelings, is part of this motif. everyone seems to lie; good characters as well as evil ones engage in deceit as they attempt to conceal their feelings: beatrice and benedick mask their feelings for one another with bitter insults; don john spies on claudio and hero; don pedro and his 'crew' deceive benedick and beatrice.
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
All simple, but major character flaws that can seriously affect one’s life. But what about tragic flaws? A tragic flaw is a character flaw so sensitive that it eventually results in a very unfortunate fate. “Antigone” is a Shakespearean Tragedy due to the tragic hero’s tragic flaw of ignorance that causes blind actions, which leads to unnecessary deaths, and finally an epic downfall. Creon, the tragic hero, performs actions with a very clouded judgment.
Examination of Oedipus at Colonus According to Aristotle’s Poetics Oedipus at Colonus I felt did not fully meet the criteria for a successful tragedy, only certain parts. Oedipus at Colonus is the sequel to Oedipus the King that has a simpler plot compared to the more complex one of Oedipus the King. If Oedipus continued, to be helpless throughout the story the plot would have been very tedious but in the middle he shows the audience a glimpse of whom he used to be but I felt that Oedipus has too much self knowledge in Oedipus at Colonus to fully capture the audience. In chapter seven of Aristotle’s Poetics, Aristotle discusses the difference between Comedy, the difference between Epopee and Tragedy. Comedy is an imitation of bad characters, which refers to the everyday person showing only the ridicules side.
5) The character's fate must be greater than deserved. Initially, the tragic hero should be neither better nor worse morally than normal people, in order to allow the audience to identify with them. This also introduces pity and catharsis, which is crucial in tragedy. Eventually the Aristotelian tragic hero dies a tragic death, having fallen from great
Is Blanche a Tragic Heroine? According to Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy, heroes in a tragedy should evoke a sense of pity or fear in the audience through Catharsis. Aristotle further states that ‘the change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.’ This helps to establish that the hero should be virtuous and morally blameless, however ‘not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.’ This means that the hero is not entirely good, but commits a great wrong-doing that leads to their misfortune. Blanche Dubois can be seen as a tragic heroine within ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ in numerous ways. In the opening scene of the play, Blanche is introduced as a symbol of chastity and sensitivity, appropriately dressed in white with an immaculate appearance, ‘She is daintily dressed in a white suit...looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party.’ Both her sensitivity and appearance are an immediate contrast to that of both Stanley and his apartment, where Blanche ironically goes to seek refuge.
Oedipus Rex is the ideal example of an Aristotelian tragedy; Aristotle himself defines Oedipus in his Poetics as being “a definite example of the form and purpose of tragedy”. In tragedies the Greeks dramatized climactic events in the lives of heroes, and here through his use of various literary devices, Sophocles elicits fear and pity for Oedipus’ circumstance from the audience. Arguably the most tragic scenes in the play happen during Oedipus’ exodus. After Oedipus has revealed the true nature of the prophecy, he finds Iocaste dead after she has figured out what happened. Oedipus seizes the pins on her dress and gouges his eyes out with them, unable to look any longer upon the sin he has committed.