The Tragic Hero

What is a tragic hero?

The
tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He is not an ordinary man, but a
man with outstanding quality and greatness about him. His own
destruction is for a greater cause or principle.
Common characteristics of a tragic hero
According to Aristotle:

1. Usually of noble birth

2. Hamartia - a.k.a. the tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall.

3. Peripeteia - a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero's tragic flaw

4. His actions result in an increase of self- awareness and self-knowledge

5. The audience must feel pity and fear for this character.


Above: Four of Shakespeare's principal tragic characters: King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III and Hamlet.
Aristotle: "A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall."


It
should be noted that the hero's downfall is his own fault as a result
of his own free choice, but his misfortune is not wholly deserved.
Usually his death is seen as a waste of human potential. His death
usually is not a pure loss, because it results in greater knowledge and
awareness.


Hamlet as a tragic hero

Aristotle
wrote down these characteristics of a tragic hero for classical Greek
tragedy plays. However, Shakespeare plays are often noted for their
excellent portrayals of tragic heroes.

Here's an example of a
principal Shakespeare character who is regarded as a tragic hero.
Hamlet's fatal flaw, as seen by Aristotle, would be his failure to act
immediately to kill Claudius. Unlike classical tragic heroes, however,
Hamlet is well aware of his fatal flaw from the beginning - he
constantly questions himself on why he continues to delay the
fulfillment of his duty. His continuous awareness and doubt delays him
from acting. (This is slightly different from the Aristotelian classical
tragedies such as Oedipus Rex where Oedipus is not aware of his flaw until the very end.)

Hamlet
finally acts to kill Claudius only after realizing that he is poisoned.
But by procrastinating, his tragic flaw, everyone whom he ridicules and
targets also dies along the way, such as Laertes, Gertrude, Polonius,
Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.


Other common traits

The strange, the supernatural and chance

Shakespeare
occasionally represents abnormal conditions of mind: insanity,
somnambulism, hallucinations - e.g. King Lear's insanity

Shakespeare
also introduces the supernatural: ghosts and witches who have
supernatural knowledge - e.g. the ghost of Hamlet's father who tells his
son to avenge his death

Shakespeare, in most of the tragedies, allows "chance" in some form to influence some of the action - e.g. in Romeo and Juliet, if Juliet didn't wake up a minute sooner they both could have avoided death


Modern-day tragic heroes?

In
the Modernist era (late 19th and early 20th century), a new kind of
tragic hero was created out of a result of this "classical" definition.
The modern hero, it seems, does not necessarily have to be of a high
estate - but rather an "ordinary person". The story may not result in an
epiphany of awareness or even come to a resolution of catharsis. He or
she may not even die! The new tragic hero is also known as the
"anti-hero".
Two examples of the modern-day tragic hero, or the "anti-hero":


Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby and Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman