Modern Day Tragic Hero Compared To Not So Modern Day Tragic Hero: Macbeth and Jim Morrison Great potential, great character, leadership, the ability to bring about change, and most importantly a death that affected countless numbers of lives. These are the traits of a tragic hero. Both Macbeth and Jim Morrison share these qualities. Both were great leaders in there own respects, both had great potential and great character, and both there deaths were true tragedies. It is true that the circumstances of there lives and deaths are drastically different but I believe both are tragic heroes in there own respects.
All The King’s Men Essay, Research Paper In the novel All the King s Men, by Robert Penn Warren, the author uses the conflicts, both those of society and the characters, the setting and the attitudes of the community to reflect the period of the 1930 s and its similar conflicts, social attitudes and values of the time. All the King’s Men is the story of the rise and fall of a political titan in the Deep South during the 1930s. Willie Stark rises from hardscrabble poverty to become governor of his state and its most powerful political figure; he blackmails and bullies his enemies into submission, and institutes a radical series of liberal reforms designed to tax the rich and ease the burden of the state’s poor farmers. He is beset with enemies–most notably Sam MacMurfee, a defeated former governor who constantly searches for ways to undermine Willie’s power–and surrounded by a rough mix of political allies and hired thugs, from the bodyguard Sugar-Boy O’Sheean to the fat, fawning Tiny Duffy (Coughlan, 52). All the King’s Men is also the story of Jack Burden, the scion of one of the state’s aristocratic dynasties, who turns his back on his refined upbringing and becomes Willie Stark’s right-hand man.
A Real Tragic Hero: John Proctor In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor fits the definition of a tragic hero. Although he has a human weakness, Proctor’s strong conviction, quest for truth, and insightfulness make him a tragic hero. Courage is not the absence of fear, rather it is the judgement that something else is more important than fear. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, many characters have decided whether they should confess to dealing with the devil and lose their “good name” or be hanged for something they did not do. A tragic hero is someone of noble birth with heroic qualities, but the hero struggles mightly against this fate and this cosmic conflict wins our admiration.
POPOOLA 1 Dorcas Popoola Ms. Toohey ENG 3U 1ST April 1, 2013 Jay Gatsby a great modern tragic protagonist According to Aristotle a tragic hero can be defined most simply as a character that in spite of a basic goodness has a tragic flaw which eventually leads to his own down fall. A tragic hero would be a man of very high status, but not absolutely perfect, his downfall is mainly his own fault, someone who arouses solemn emotions like pity, fear, compassion and awe from the audience or readers. All of the characteristics talked about by Aristotle apply to the character of Jay Gatsby in the novel “The Great Gatsby”. The Great Gatsby is a modern novel, the tragic; Gatsby came from nothing and rise up to a high status. Although at first Gatsby might seem not to be an everyday but he realistically is an everyday man.
Big Brother is the example of all the ideals of the totalitarian party. In compare to Big Brother, Winston Smith keeps the idea of democracy underlines freedom; he has to hide his own thought because the Big Brother's party will punish him by death if the party finds it out. George Orwell evaluates of Big Brother's society by describing it as a dark and a gloomy place. It warns that people might believe that everyone must become slaves to the government in order to have an orderly society, but at the expense of the freedom of the people The super-country of Oceania is in a constant state of war in which the novel 1984 is set in, and bomb explosions are omnipresent. The living conditions are poor – very poor – with the buildings broken-down, the food artificial and rationed out, wages poor, and clothing cheap.
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 Hapless Hero Arthur Miller demonstrated in Death of a Salesman that tragic heroism still possible in the modern world, but the tragic hero or tragic heroine should be of noble birth or hold an important social position, be basically virtuous, and desire to do good. However, Wily Loman is not a tragic hero because he is hapless rather than heroic, his personal tragedy that comes from his lack in ability to admit his errors and learn from them. Instead, he fits Miller's description of the pathetic character, one who "by virtue of his witlessness, his insensitivity, or the very air he gives off, is incapable of grappling with a much superior force," (Miller1). The definition of a tragic hero is a condition of life that allows an individual to find the route of self-realization and discover to the fullest extent of his or her capabilities. This insight only occurs when an individual bravely endure the "total examination of the 'unchangeable' environment" (Miller1).
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.
Secondly, his suicide denies him the fulfillment of venerability in the human world, within the framework of a cycle of returns from the spirit world to the human world and back to the spirit world in a going and coming that goes on forever. Thirdly and finally, like Okonkwo, the Igbo society also meets a tragic fate. The title Things Fall Apart fits perfectly with the book, because both of Okonkwo and Igbo are fall apart. Okonkwo is arguably the most powerful man in Umuofia, which is an original and peaceful village. His father, Unoka, is cowardly and spendthrift person, who died in disrepute, leaving many unsettled debts.
Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles is one of the most famous tragedies ever written. The play centers on Oedipus the King of Thebes, who is cursed with an unfortunate prophecy. Though Oedipus is doomed by fate, his own qualities lead to his eventual ruin. Oedipus is in fact a tragic hero, because he embodies every aspect of the definition itself, the first part of the definition states the character/protagonist must be of noble birth and possess noble and moralistic character, the second portion of the definition explains the character is not perfect; he or she contains a harmartia or tragic flaw, and the third component of the definition states the character must recognize their role in their own demise and in turn experience great self realization. The character Oedipus accommodates the first aspect of the definition of a tragic hero.