Through the great tragedy Oedipus Rex, we can easily see how Sophocles personified the tragic hero. Oedipus is the model for Aristotle’s tragic hero because he possesses a tragic flaw, undergoes a reversal of fortune, and in the end, recognizes his mistakes. As part of Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero Oedipus possesses a tragic flaw. This hamartia (tragic flaw) is caused by a lapse of judgment in his past the led Oedipus to engage in a mistake that would forever change his life. After fleeing from Corinth, Oedipus encounters Laios on a crossroad.
As the main characteristic of a tragic, the character must represent anxiety, leading to a serious consequence as drastic as death. In Othello, the main character shows a series of downfalls in according to his actions such as his social status, emotional correspondence, and the loss of his beloved wife. Due to the fact Othello murdered his own wife, it yields the consequences as he commits suicide with a small knife. This outcome takes the audience by surprise as a different penance is expected, resulting in peripeteia.The deaths play a key role in the tragedy as we see the weakness of our main character, as he believes he'd rather not live at all, than live without his love, knowing her innocence and suffering through his guilt. These tragic deaths represents Catharsis in Othello as the readers feel pity at the loss of Desdemona.
Othello fits into the classical mould of a Greek tragedy, brought about by Aristotle many years before the play was written. A Greek tragedy is based on conflict and depicts the downfall of high-ranking characters, who make fatal errors of judgement (hamartia) because of their overweening ambition and pride (hubris), and they are swiftly destroyed by the consequences of their actions. Aristotle stated that a tragic hero should have qualities that the ordinary person would also possess, but the tragedy is best when it ends unhappily, making the audience feel pity and fear. Othello is a highly original tragedy in many ways. He is a high-ranking general and is descended from a line of kings, as well as being overambitious when marrying Desdemona, possibly overreaching himself when he tries to combine the two lifestyles.
Tragic heroes are, generally, the main character of a tragedy. Tragic heroes often error in their own actions and judgments of others leading them to their ultimate downfall, which commonly ends in their own death. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as, “a man of noble stature. He is not an ordinary man, but a man with outstanding quality and greatness about him” (Aristotle). In order to be a tragic hero, the audience must be able to understand the character, and to feel pity and fear for him.
This is when we know he actually killed Hamlet’s father. He takes his revenge by killed Claudius in the end by poison knife and comits suicide unlike his father. “Give me the cup: let go, by heaven.” (Act 5, Scene 2, Lines 344). The contrast that he and his father had was that they both ended up
Webster’s dictionary defines tragedy as, “a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (such as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror.” A tragic hero, therefore, is the character who experiences such a conflict and suffers catastrophically as a result of his choices and related actions. The character of Hamlet, therefore, is a clear representation of Shakespeare’s tragic hero. As the play’s tragic hero, Hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad traits. A complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play’s development. When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King.
Antigone; Polynices sister tries to bury him and Creon has her captured for a punishment. In ‘Antigone’ Creon is the tragic hero because he displays the elements of a Greek tragedy peripeteia, anagnorisis and hubris. Hubris is the excessive pride of arrogance; it is the quality in a character that most often brings about their downfall in tragedy. Creon portrays hubris toward several characters in the play like; Antigone and Teiresias. 'I do believe the creatures both are mad, one lately crazed, the other from her birth' (Sophocles 141) In this quote Creon is calling both Antigone and Iseme crazy for feeling sorrow for their brothers death.This displays hubris because he is being ignorant as he is filled with excessive pride.
1King Oedipus: A Tragic Hero Abstract: Oedipus Rex is one of the most celebrated tragedies of the world which introduces us to a new version of the Greek family dramas that espouses ethics beyond human kind. In the ancient Greek world the tragic heroes were supposed to be of noble background and character. But in the case of Oedipus- the protagonist of Oedipus Rex, there are some obscurities regarding the characterization that leads the readers to a disputable resolution on Oedipus’ heroism as a tragic one. This paper completely focuses on the analysis of the character and on some points which aims at establishing Oedipus as a tragic hero. Key Words: Tragic Hero, Hamartia, Oedipus, Fate.
Aristotle's Tragedy in a Modern Play In Poetics, Aristotle explains tragedy as a kind of imitation of a certain magnitude, using direct action instead of narration to achieve its desired effect. It is of an exceptionally serious nature. Tragedy is also complete, with a structure that unifies all of its parts. It is meant to produce a catharsis of the audience, meant to produce the emotions of pity and fear and to purge them of these emotions and helping them better understand the ways of the gods and men. Tragedy is also in a language in both verse and song (Aristotle 1, VI; McLeish 8-9).
Public violence, a deadly plague committed by many individuals around the world, results in deadly effects contributing to the breakage of a society. This is evident in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare has a very strong message on public violence leading to devastation, shown by the effects of certain vicious actions. Firstly, those that are themselves involved in public violence are harmed by their own actions, and these actions later lead to their own deaths. Secondly, the people related to the victims are also impacted negatively, because of the loss of someone so close to them, which in turn causes them to commit further acts of violence, becoming a cycle.