The concept of the tragic hero is a cornerstone of literary analysis, originating from ancient Greek drama and persisting through to contemporary literature. This archetype reflects a character who possesses inherent flaws or makes critical errors in judgment, leading to their inevitable downfall. Tragic heroes are typically individuals of high ...Read More
The concept of the tragic hero is a cornerstone of literary analysis, originating from ancient Greek drama and persisting through to contemporary literature. This archetype reflects a character who possesses inherent flaws or makes critical errors in judgment, leading to their inevitable downfall. Tragic heroes are typically individuals of high status or noble birth who are pitted against an insurmountable fate or a critical moral decision, which ultimately leads to a tragic end. This essay topic invites an exploration of how the tragic hero has evolved over centuries, from the strictures of Aristotle’s definitions in ancient Greek tragedies, through the complexities of Shakespeare’s protagonists, to the nuanced figures in modern literature.
Writing an essay on the evolution of the tragic hero is significant for several reasons:
It offers insights into how societal values and philosophical perceptions of heroism, morality, and fate have shifted over time.
This theme provides a rich field for literary analysis, allowing for a deep dive into various literary devices, character development, and narrative techniques used by authors to depict tragic heroes.
It encourages a nuanced understanding of human strengths and weaknesses and the consequences of our choices, underscoring the timeless relevance of classical themes in the modern context.
The evolution of the tragic hero offers a lens through which to examine different cultural attitudes towards fate, free will, and the divine.
By exploring the tragedies of these heroes, readers and writers alike are prompted to reflect on their own lives and the human condition, fostering empathy for others.
Literature Review Essay Topics
The Evolution of the Tragic Hero in Literature: From Ancient Greece to Modern Times
Feminism in Literature: The Waves from the 19th Century to the Present
The Portrayal of Family Dynamics in 20th-Century American Literature
Post-Colonial Narratives and Identity: A Literature Review
When we dive into the works of Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois, we’re not just reading stories or essays; we’re stepping into a complex dialogue about race in America during some of its most tumultuous times. Each of these writers approached...
Not like many other plays you have read or seen before, ‘night Mother written by Marsha Norman is a play which focuses on only two main characters. The entire play is spoken through the thoughts of a mother (Mama) and daughter (Jessie). Most of their...
Beyond the brutalities that all slaves endured, females suffered the additional anguish of sexual exploitation and the deprivation of motherhood. In “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Harriet Jacobs focuses on racial subjugation but also gives voice to a different kind of captivity...
It is an undeniable fact that, character triats, attitude, upbringing, and education will shape an individual perception and mindset towards life. Lennie, Suyuan and Amir each has their own idea of what The American Dream should entail. Happiness as a concept is as ambiguous as...
Adrienne Rich’s “Song” plays out an uncomfortably intimate melody concerning a woman’s feelings of inescapable loneliness. Adrienne asserts the tortured song of this woman’s soul so beautifully, teasing the reader early on with passivity, and then cunningly slips into prose so lovely that the reader...
It is universally accepted that, at the age of fifty-two, men should be courting women of similar ages. However, David Lurie, the protagonist of J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, does not comply with these standards. He is absolutely infatuated with women in their twenties, his college...
Throughout Harriet Jacobs’ powerful and informative autobiography, Christianity is repeatedly mentioned as a direct and indirect influence on the episodes of her life as an enslaved woman. Jacobs depicts religion amongst the enslaved as an assuaging escape from their suffering and exposes the Christianity of...
Curtis Sittenfield’s award-winning novel, Prep, and Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian illustrate the prominent theme of isolation in an upcoming teen’s life. In Prep, the reader is brought through Lee Fiora’s trauma filled journey through a renowned institution known as...
Jealousy and Envy are among the greatest sins out of the seven sins, which led to the downfall of the society. The story by Maupassant “The Necklace” is about a woman who held jealousy and envy throughout the story. Mathilde Loisel, the protagonist, felt that...
Frost is known for his realistic depiction of rural life and his command over American Colloquial Speech. He frequently wrote about settings in Rural life in New England in the early 1900’s and using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes He was copiously...
As William Shakespeare’s only truly Aristotelian tragedy, Othello has no subplot or comic relief, and, when originally performed, had little spectacle in the way of the set or action. The absence of these distractions leave the themes of the play defined and apparent. The story...
Jack Burden, the chronicler and one of two possible protagonists of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, is anything but a static narrator. His character is quite possibly even more dynamic than that of Willie Stark, the novel’s man of the hour. Throughout the...
In Cloud Nine, playwright Caryl Churchill examines questions of gender identity, sexuality and individual freedom as they exist within two traditional, oppressive ideological paradigms: colonial imperialism and masculine hegemony. By juxtaposing these worlds of political and sexual dominance, Churchill draws a parallel between the paralysis...
As a result of betrayal, Silas Marner of George Eliot’s so titled novel becomes a man in body without incurring any of the duties normally associated with nineteenth century working class adults. Eliot creates these unusual circumstances by framing our title-hero so it appears to...
Dark Phrases of Womanhood: Madness and Imprisonment in Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my...
‘Some religious texts seem to find it relatively easy to disengage from the material world. Many more, however, derive their dynamism from the difficulty of doing so.’ Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences...
Cultural divides are difficult to overcome in storytelling, because readers must both re-orient their largest cultural assumptions and understand the ideas of specific, unique characters. However, in The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan effectively makes much of Chinese culture comprehensible to American readers. In describing...
Vikas Swarup’s Q & A tells the story of a young orphan who miraculously transforms from being penniless to possessing more money than he could ever imagine. It seems Ram’s ability to answer all of the questions on a quiz show correctly is the result...
A reader reading Albee will not fail to notice tricks of language in operation; a more interesting analysis is to consider how the characters themselves are aware of language, of reading and being read, as a text, by other characters. Albee’s plays, “Who’s Afraid of...
Introduction The emotional experience of the landscape is never identical for different individuals. Nonetheless, these diverse experiences always inform a person’s sense of connection to their physical landscape, and subsequently have a profound impact on their identity. Colm Toibin’s novel Brooklyn explores how Eilis Lacey’s...
Writing from the late 1880s to the dawn of modern Ireland in the first two decades of the 20th century, Yeats and Synge penned their works during a period of national liminality; or what critic Seamus Deane refers to as “the long process of its...
In the literary work Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, there is clear conflict within the issues of social class, race and love among the characters. In a society where money and power are necessary for success, Heathcliff, a poor, dark-skinned orphan, felt that it was...
Progress for the Sake of Progress “Progress for the sake of progress must be prohibited”. Although this quote is from Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter, it accurately describes Thoreau’s attitude towards progress in Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, an excerpt from Walden....
Sense and Sensibility Summary February 2nd, 2018Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen starts off at Norland Park, where Mr. Dashwood has just passed away and left his fortune to this nephew’s son, John Dashwood. Despite John Dashwood’s promise with his father to take care of...
Horatio Alger was the author of Ragged Dick. Ragged Dick became the most popular novel of his collection which was published in 1867. This book demonstrates a story about a character by the name of Dick who is a bootblack in New York City. He...
In “Marrying Absurd,” Joan Didion illustrates the experience of getting “married” in Las Vegas as completely meaningless because it has become too simple. Didion claims that this process is pointless because obtaining a marriage license has become more of a business. Didion supports these claims...
Lee et.al’s article studies on how children view themselves and others, children’s intra and inter-racial friendships, ways in which these friendships takes place in their school lives. Throughout the study, Lee et al stated that they cite race rather than ethnicity and race continues to...
Introduction This novel is based on the experiences lived by Conrad as captain of a vapor Belgian ship, he is one of the most important writers of the finals of the XIX, and beginning of the XX. Conrad was Polish and he learned to speak...
The first sentence of the very informative and persuasive document know as Common Sense, Thomas Paine says, that just because there isn’t anything wrong does not make anything right. He also starts to explain how America will be an example for the universe and how...
Japan’s Cuisines: Food, Place and Identity by Eric C. Rath is a scholarly book that reveals the great diversity of Japanese cuisine and explains how Japan’s modern food culture arose through the direction of private and public institutions. Rath argues that by focusing on ceremonial...
