Tragic hero

For other uses, see Tragic hero (disambiguation).

A tragic hero (or tragic heroine, if a woman) is the protagonist of a tragedy.

Aristotle's tragic hero

Aristotle shared his view of what makes a tragic hero in this Poetics. Aristotle suggests that a hero of a tragedy must evoke in 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."[1] In other words, the focus of the tragic hero should not be in the loss of his prosperity. He establishes the concept that the emotion of pity stems not from a person becoming better but when a person receives undeserved misfortune - and fear comes when the misfortune befalls a man like us. This is why Aristotle points out the simple fact that, “The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.” According to Aristotle a tragic hero thought to be a man who misfortune comes to him, not through vice or depravity but by some error of judgment. For example King Oedipus kills his father from impulse and marries his mother out of ignorance.

A great example of a tragic hero is Creon in the play Antigone by Sophocles. He dooms his family by making a law forbidding the burial of Polyneices, the former king. He and his brother were kings, and Polyneices wanted more power, so he left and assembled an army from a neighboring city. They attacked and the two brothers killed each other.

Aristotle suggests that the tragic hero has to be a man “who is not eminently good and just, whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.” Aristotle's hero is thus characterized as virtuous but not "eminently good," suggesting a noble or important personage who is upstanding and morally inclined and yet nonetheless subject to human error. Aristotle's tragic hero is a flawed one, who commits (wittingly or unwittingly) an injury or great wrong that ultimately leads to his or her misfortune, often followed by a tragic realization of the true nature of events that led to this destiny. [2] He still has to be - to some degree - good. Aristotle adds another qualification to that of being virtuous but not entirely good when he says, “He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous.” He goes on to give examples such as Oedipus and Thyestes.”

References

  1. ↑ S.H. Butcher, The Poetic of Aristotle, (1902), pp. 45-47
  2. ↑ Charles H. Reeves, The Aristotelian Concept of The Tragic Hero, Vol. 73, No. 2 (1952), Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: HTTP://www.jstor.org/stable/291812 pp. 172-188

Sources

  • Carlson, Marvin. 1993. Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present. Expanded ed. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP. ISBN 0-8014-8154-6.
  • Janko, Richard, trans. 1987. Poetics with Tractatus Coislinianus, Reconstruction of Poetics II and the Fragments of the On Poets. By Aristotle. Cambridge: Hackett. ISBN 978-0-87220-033-3.
  • Pavis, Patrice. 1998. Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis. Trans. Christine Shantz. Toronto and Buffalo: U of Toronto P. ISBN 978-0-8020-8163-6.