Essays on Tragic Hero

From the very title of this historical fiction novel, Things Fall Apart, composed by Chinua Achebe, it foreshadows the tragedy which is triggered by the tragic hero. Defined by Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, a tragic hero is a character who is of noble stature...

In Sophocles’ play Antigone, Creon is the tragic hero, because he comes from a noble position, is brought down by a tragic flaw, and faces consequences greater than deserved. Creon’s tragic flaw, self-confidence, causes his downfall. Creon won’t listen to not one person. He is...

John Proctor is a character in The Crucible who can be described as a tragic hero. Firstly, John Proctor’s tragic flaw was his great amount of pride, that slowly tied a series of unfortunate events, eventually making Proctor succumb to his death. However, Proctor does...

Many stories have a hero that is fortunate to overcome their problems, although some have flaws and meet tragic ends. In the Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman is conveyed as a tragic hero as he loses his battle against mental stability...

What is Hamlet’s tragic flaw? Hamlet’s tragic flaw is his inability to avenge his father’s death because he hasn’t been able to conquer himself in his internal conflict. This recalls the cliche- “One’s greatest enemy is no other than oneself”. I think procrastination is the...

The renowned philosopher Aristotle formally outlined the parameters of the tragic hero in his work “On Poetics”. Aristotle primarily based his tragic hero model on Oedipus, a king from Greek mythology. He outlined the tragic hero as a person of noble birth who encompasses a...

Question 1 There are several ways to define a tragic hero. Aristotle breached upon several of these characteristics during his philosophical years. Several definitions were provided at the top of this question, many of which can be attributed to both Othello and Macbeth : Shakespearean...

Throughout history, literature and the way people interpret literature has changed dramatically. Different genres of plays including romance, action, and even heartbreaking tragedies that touch the reader’s heart have been shared for thousands of years. One of the most popular genres would be tragedies. A...

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” are two American dramas that have sparked fierce debates among analysts, writers, literary critics, scholars, and even readers when it comes to tragic heroes. The major characters and central focus of the two...

Shakespeare masterfully develops Aristotelian tragic heroes. According to Aristotle, a tragedy depicts the downfall of a hero due to his tragic flaw (hamartia) and fate or the actions of the Gods. A tragic hero, typically an aristocrat or nobleman, ultimately recognizes his tragic flaw (agnorisis),...

Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, is a tragic play focusing on the common man during the late 1940’s. Much of the story is told by flashbacks of Willy Loman’s past, including him cheating on Linda, his wife. His older son, Biff, witnessed the...

In both the story Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, and the series Breaking Bad, by Vince Gilligan, there is a tragic hero that is in the process of destroying his life. Even though they do not measure up to the same situations, both of the...

There is a reason why Willy Loman is considered as a tragic hero where a great deal of it has to with his pride. As a matter of fact, through the character of Willy, Arthur Miller is able to build the theme of pride around...

Heracles, Greece’s greatest hero, is a demigod whose mortal life is dominated by a series of successes due to his tremendous strength and failures due to his excessive passions. While, ostensibly, his passions cause him pain and bring about misfortune, he ultimately gains eternal glory...

In the world of theatre, there are many plays in which the central figure is one who harnesses extreme personality traits above all others. For example, Sophocles’ Oedipus is a fatherly king with great ambition and strength; and Shakespeare’s Macbeth is evilly ambitious, while Romeo...

As in other plays, reflecting a specific culture, “Death and the King’s Horseman” has kept close to religious and traditional issues, but it has shaped culture into a great tragedy. Aristotle defines tragedy in his book poetics as: A tragedy is the imitation of an...

The tragic hero is a popular archetype of classic literature, generally referring to a character that embodies the qualities of a classic hero as well as a fatal flaw that dooms him to failure. In his epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton illustrates Satan specifically...