Vernon Campbell Comparative Essay Ambition is a typical demise for those who pursue and gain power. Shakespeare Macbeth and Shelly’s Ozymandias covey the characteristics of over ambitious kings with presumptuous natures resulting in their down fall. A distinctive flaw of ambition is that now and again people can be exceedingly ambitious, or lack ambition. As a person becomes too ambitious it can become too overwhelming and get the better of a them. In the different time periods that they ruled, Macbeth and Ozymandias were very commanding kings.
People may feel intimidated by one’s sheer ability to lead and control. Like in the bible it says “pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall [Proverbs 16:18].” That quote from the Bible means that pride will cause one to fall or fail. “Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud [Proverbs 16:19].” Like in the story Oedipus, the king Oedipus was a good man with a tragic flaw; Oedipus, very over-confident in himself and based his life on pride. In the story he ended up gouging out his own eyes and exiling himself away from his kingdom. This pride overthrew him and took over him.
More than these, I think Lear is motivated by his idea that he is a good man. One thing that supports is when Kent says “I’ll tell thee thou dost evil,” (Act I, Scene I, Line 175) and Shakespeare writes the king as reacting in a frenzy, going so far as to say “This moment is thy death,” (Act I, Scene I, Line 190). By portraying the king in this way, Shakespeare causes us to judge him as unstable and mental. While his actions thus far have been rash, him reacting in this way, and him banishing his daughter saying, “Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity and property of blood,” (Act I, Scene I, Lines 117-118). From these thing, it is made clear that Lear is not only rash and insecure but also thoughtless and stupid.
Julius Caesar dismissed the multiple warnings to beware the Ides of March. Consequently, a group of conspirators sent daggers through the body of the ancient Roman leader. All these conspirators conspired and executed their plan due to selfish and jealous motives, excluding the play’s tragic hero. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus fulfills the role of the tragic hero because he possesses qualities of a good person, and he has a sense of commitment. Through words and actions William Shakespeare paints the picture that Brutus is a virtuous individual who believes in and stands by certain moral traits.
He undermines Brutus, conveyed through his lamenting tone “thou art the ruins of the noblest man” to further challanege the perspective that caesars thirst for power was a threat to the roman republic. Shakespeare furthers these conflicting perspectives in Act 3 scene 2 to demonstrate the power of political rhetoric. In the funerary speeches, Brutus’ patriotic tone in “not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved rome more” representes him as a protector of the roman republican values that Caesar threatened. This is sharply
Even though Lear is not a man of intellectual brilliance he is a “great soul,” with the capacity for feeling deeply the sorrow of rejection and abandonment by his own. The character of Lear in “King Lear” was known as a tragic hero, because the play meets all the requirements of a tragedy based on Aristotle’s Poetics via A.C. Bradley’s, the Shakespearean tragic Hero. Aristotle suggests that a hero of a tragedy must evoke from the audience a sense of pity or fear, saying, the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity. King Lear has many common qualities, which appear to be essential to the tragic effect. According to Aristotle’s criteria of a tragic hero, King Lear shows characteristics of a tragic hero by having pre-eminence, tragic flaw and gaining of interest.
Unlike Caesar, Brutus is able to separate completely his public life from his private life; by giving priority to matters of state, he epitomizes Roman virtue. Torn between his loyalty to Caesar and his allegiance to the state, Brutus becomes the tragic hero of the play. Julius Caesar - A great Roman general and senator recently returned to Rome in triumph after a successful military campaign. While his good friend Brutus worries that Caesar may aspire to dictatorship over the Roman republic, Caesar seems to show no such inclination, declining the crown several times. Yet while Caesar may not be unduly power-hungry, he does possess his share of flaws.
In Richard III, Shakespeare gives an account of Richard's character that was popular opinion of him as an evil deformed schemer, until late in the 20th century. Historians now view this account as a dramatic plot device, necessary for the “villain role” that Shakespeare had given him. It is not consistent with what is now known of Richard III, who in many ways showed himself to be an enlightened and forward-thinking King. With the opening words of Richard III, "Now is the winter of our discontent," Shakespeare lays the groundwork for the portrayal of Richard III as a man who is unhappy in a world that hates him. Later, he describes himself as "Deformed, unfinished, sent before his time into this breathing world, scarce half made up."
Othello: A Tragic Hero Othello is the epitome of a tragic hero. He starts out as a rather respectable and rational General, but was eventually consumed by jealousy and anger. A tragic hero must start out high in power and have tragic flaws that lead him to ultimately a tragedy. Othello’s tragic flaw is that he is easily manipulated, leading him to trust the wrong people. The play begins by showing the readers that Othello is a noble General.
A tragedy is a story of a person’s demise brought on them by the specific flaws in their character. The “Tragedy of Othello” by William Shakespeare tells a story of deceit and revenge. Othello, the central figure of the play, is a man noble to his country and people. He is an amazing character, a tragic hero, who has befallen to undeserved misfortune and folly. While it may seem, that the tragedy of Othello was caused by the evil villain Iago, I believe that he was not the only one to blame.