Heroes As A Hero, And The Tragic Hero In Literature

“A hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway”-Joseph Campbell. Stories have so much power connect you to another world and teach you lessons that are needed throughout history. Archetypes give the story a focal point and shape the lesson the author is trying to get across. When ideals get embedded into stories, usually it’s when the hero does something noble and valiant so they want their readers to follow in his footsteps. The Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and Medieval Christian King Arthur display many archetypes and ideals to shape the story and make it exciting. The Beowulf and King Arthur storytellers use archetypes to create stories with suspense and have their heroes display values of loyalty to their respective listeners.

With every corner we turn in today’s culture, we become more and more aware of the archetypes that surround us. Archetypes are the works of a typical character, situation, setting, or symbol that can be found in fantasy and reality. An example would be the renowned medieval story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Pearl Poet. The author permeates the story with situational, symbolic, and character archetypes that illustrate the profound life of Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain was apprehensive of his journey at first, but as time passes, he began to make choices that unveils to the audience the true flawed knight that he was.

Archetypes are defined as “a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature.” (“Archetype”) The short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien is about the internal struggle and the journey he faces after he is drafted to serve the army. The classical hero’s journey archetype is similar to Tim O’Brien’s journey in his short story, “On the Rainy River,” with the exception of the arc length and depth of transformation.

A hero and a villain are complete opposite from each other. Heroes normally save the day and defeat the villains who try to created mayhem. In most stories the hero is the protagonist, the main character in the story that is trying to achieve a goal. Heroes are greatly admired for their honest, brave, fair, and clever personality. However villains can be viewed as what a society fears. Unlike heroes, villains conduct devious acts of mishap. Villains play the role of the antagonist in most stories, the character that attempt to prevent the protagonist to achieve their goal. Both the hero and the villain play an important part in explaining culture

Superman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman—what do all these characters have in common? They are all products of the human aspiration to be saved. The word hero is passed around too much these days. A hero is not a football player that scores the game-winning touchdown or the goaltender who saves his team from a loss. A hero is usually an ordinary person that did extraordinary things. A true hero is really never a hero at all; at least not in their own mind. However, there are various cases today in which we see the exact opposites of these characters, the anti-heroes. The anti-hero is one who cannot be classified as a hero, for that said character lacks natural heroic qualities. However, the anti-hero cannot be described as a villain either.

An archetype is defined as an image, story-pattern, character, setting, symbol, or situation that recurs frequently in literature and in life. It demonstrates universal human experiences and associates strongly with readers through a subconscious understanding. In the Epic of Gilgamesh the main character, Gilgamesh, is an example of a superheroic archetypal hero. He took on an epic quest for everlasting life by following the archetypal steps of a hero’s journey. Through suffering due to tragedy, realizing the nature of his quest, seeking help from a mentor, experiencing failure, and returning home with a companion, Gilgamesh’s story followed the situational archetype of a hero’s journey.

Over time, history has given society many whom we call true heroes. Heroes could come in many forms: some such as immense in size and strength, some in the form of people that are shunned upon, and some that are only valorous heroes to some. These heroes have many characteristics that make people flock to their side and follow them without hesitation. However, a tragic hero requires different qualities. A tragic hero is a character of noble birth who is fated by some supernatural force to suffer, and this because of a tragic flaw that contributes to his or her downfall.

An archetypal hero must have specific characteristics before embarking on a quest. For example many heroes, experience some sort of traumatic event during childhood. In the movie Star Wars IV: A New Hope the archetypal hero Luke Skywalker experiences the

A tragic hero is someone like Hamlet from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The flaws and struggles within his self on his choices and decisions. No matter what the character does, their flaws will lead to their tragic downfall or something like Oedipus in the Greek drama Oedipus. While an epic hero generally doesn't have the same type of waving flaws that a tragic hero does. They know the correct path in following it no matter what. An anti-hero is a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.

The representation of archetypes in texts, has transformed prominently over time. The archetype of the hero, has been evident in texts as early as the 16th century, therefore has changed drastically over time due to the influences and the reflections of the historical events in which have occurred, as well as the social values in various time periods. The development of the hero archetype can be drawn from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1835 poem, Morte d'Arthur, Brothers Grimm's 1857 version of the classic tale, Little Red Cap, and 2010 TV Movie, Avalon High by Meg Cabot. These three texts explore how events and values over time have influenced the archetype of the hero.

Throughout literature, the idea of the hero has changed to represent a number of differing. Heroes were originally personified as being an individual who were not bound by limitations, as well as demonstrating an archetypical sense of moral judgment. Later on, contrasting adaptations of heroes started to form in which the hero of a story would typically exhibit traits that would closely resemble the limitations and troubles that ordinary people faced. For the most part, a contemporary “hero” is simply looked at as the protagonist in the story. Acclaimed heroes in literature, such as Beowulf and Hamlet, when compared to one another can give a person a better sense of the changes in the hero. Although they both are the main characters

A possible theme for Oedipus the King by Sophocles is that one’s blindness can hide the inevitability that is his destiny. Oedipus is in this situation. He struggles to escape his fate: killing his father and marrying his mother and believes he is successful. Sophocles believes that the gpds control one’s destiny and the inevitability that a person will do what is destined despite there hero’s intentions.Oedipus represent the standards of a true tragic hero: he is well known, basically good, his punishment is out of proportion compared to his crime, the audience at some point feels sorrow and pity for him, and Oedipus has a tragic flaw. During the whole story Oedipus thinks that he may be able to change his fate a live life how he wants but he falls to that which is his destiny.For these reason Oedipus is truly an example of a tragic hero and is unable to avoid his tragic fate.

In literature, numerous connections and contrasting features are prevalent. Archetypes, motifs, and natural heroic personality traits have created the generic structures of heroes, villains and everything in between. For example, heros are considered to be enduring, courageous, and powerful. While on the other side of the spectrum, villains have been traditionally considered to be moody, mercurial with their temper, and overall a nuisance over society. A good story will make connections between the protagonist and the antagonist.

In many, a tragedy do the tragic heroes have flaws that lead themselves to their own demise. The main character always acts exactly on his or her own emotions; thus aiding their tragic flaw and leading to their own demise without giving them the time to stop the repercussions of their emotion driven actions. In the play “Antigone” by Sophocles many of the characters are simply too headstrong and passionate about their beliefs to realize that they would greatly regret the decisions they are making. All of the characters share this characteristic; it is alluded to in the play that this is caused by their blood relation to Oedipus and how they are too cursed.

It is enticing to categorize formal, pictorial and historic individuals into pigeonholes. The issue, of course, is that such descriptions can be deceptive at best, and highly skewed or fluctuating at worst. When utilizing such key words as villain, anti-villain, hero, anti-hero or even adventurer, it is imperative that one not forget how blurred and flexible the lines really are, and to ask why a certain description is or should be fixed on any particular individual. It is not enough to merely categorize an individual or character. One must take into account what the inventor of such a character had planned, what conditions could affect an individual’s actions, what societal or cultural background this individual hales from, what their principles or motives may be, and finally, how our own beliefs, biases, and interactions may influence our views.