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. Okonkwo, on the other hand, is a wealthy and a well respected warrior of the Umofian clan, a lower Nigerian tribe who gives effort to develop into a powerful and successful person, nevertheless ends up self murdered and doomed as an evil spirit.
Shakespeare's characters illustrate that tragic heroes are neither fully good nor fully evil. During the development of the plot, a hero's mistakes, rather than his goodness, lead to his tragic downfall. An example of a tragedy is Macbeth. Macbeth is driven up the hill of greatness, and then his untamed ambition leads him to death. The process of a tragedy is slow to let the audience become comfortable with the power and happiness of the main character.
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.
These characters have what it truly means to be a tragic hero in the past. They both possess the qualities, according to Aristotle, of a tragic hero. They are both born of noble birth, and the audience feels pity on these characters. They also both have Peripeteia, defined as a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero’s tragic flaw. Hamlet’s tragic flaw was him waiting too long to kill Claudius and in doing so, everyone died including Hamlet.
Polyneices betrays his kingdom and dies killing his brother. According to Greek mythology, if someone is not buried properly, then that person will not be able to rest peacefully in the afterlife. Antigone, sister of Polyneices and Eteocles, betrays Creon and properly buries Polyneices. When he learns of her betrayal, he orders
Euripides Medea (A tragic hero) According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is either an aristocrat or someone of royalty that cannot be evil. The hero has a flaw that causes a mistake in his judgment and leads to the downfall of himself or those around him. Also, the character must recognize his guilt. Medea was born into nobility, she have a tragic law when Jason betray her and she became miserable. She makes a huge judgments error when she killed her sons.
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. One of Brutus' tragic flaws is that he does not have a good judge of character, and he ends up trusting Cassius and joining the Conspirators. Elements that make Brutus the tragic hero are his fall resulting from what Aristotle calls “an act of injustice” (hamartia), his downfall is his own fault resulting from his choices, and was defeated but dared greatly and becomes an example for others. Brutus tragic hero of Julius Caesar displays hamartia, he commits a crime acting out of the best intentions, which in this scenario results from mistaken judgment and will make him fall from his grand stature. One of the multiple examples is shown when Brutus and Portia, his wife, were having a conversation after the conspirators left their house.
Antigone is determined, proud and loyal to her family. She didn’t blend into the laws of Creon and buried her dead brother anyway losing her husband and her life. An example of a tragic flaw for Antigone would be when she said, “Thebes, and my fathers’ gods, and rulers of Thebes, you see me how, the last unhappy daughter of a line of kings, your kings, led away to death. You will remember what things I suffer, and at what men’s hands, because I would not transgress the laws of Heaven” (756). What Antigone said is a tragic flaw because she killed herself.
3: Oedipus Rex suffers awful downfalls on his journey to become the tragic hero he is today. He grieves with many flaws, errors in judgment, intervention of the gods, terrible fate and bad luck. His tragic flaw is demonstrating many acts of hubris. One can hear Oedipus sound arrogant when he says “Nothing will move me. I will find out the whole truth(61).” His judgment is flawed by emotional pressure that causes him to lose a sense of balance from the beginning when he is shunned by Creon and he feels that they are trying to take his place.
The plot in Oedipus included the aspect of reversal, for example, when Oedipus finds out the truth about whom his real parents were, it is expected that he would have a good reaction. Instead, an opposite reaction is created, because he then realizes that the prophecy of him killing his father, and marrying his mother has come to past (Oedipus, scene 4). The aspect of reversal is meant to produce the opposite effect within a scene (Aristotle 199). The plot in Oedipus portrays the story as a good tragedy, because it includes the aspect of recognition. 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.