Tamburlaine and Tragic Heroism Essay

Sophocles’ play Antigone continues the calamitous story of the Theban royal family, recounting the conflict between Creon’s authority as king and Antigone’s sense of justice. While many of the events of the play are certainly tragic, whether or not Antigone and its characters should be considered tragic is less definite. Aristotle’s theory of a tragic hero calls for a basically good character who experiences a fall due to some flaw or error, experiencing a transformative realization and catharsis as a result. When considered together, the traits of both Antigone and Creon come together to fulfill all of the requirements for the play to be a tragedy, but neither character can be considered an Aristotelian tragic hero standing alone.

Shakespeare's play, “Othello, the Moor of Venice,” is a powerful example of a tragedy and it’s main character, Othello, is an excellent illustration of what Aristotle constitutes as a tragic hero. The play imitates life through basic human emotions such as jealousy and rage. In addition, Othello is far from being a perfect character - another quality that meets Aristotle's requirements. Othello also matches Aristotle's ideas of tragic hero because our Othello realizes the error of his ways, causing us to feel sympathy for him. If we carefully examine the third scene in the third act, we can see how Othello fits into Aristotle's definition of tragic hero. This passage reveals how much Othello has deteriorated as far as his ability to reason

In order to gain a proper perspective on the concept of what a tragic hero is, we must synthesize information from the following play’s, “The Death Of A Salesman”, and “Oedipus The King”. Both plays takes the stance on the idea that validates the ultimate notion,  “tragic hero. From Willy’s hubris personality to his questionable and mysterious death, to Oedipus dynamic and complex choices and kingly personality that determines his fate. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement that leads to his/her downfall. In other words, even though both characters made incredible contributions and left a very noble legacy, their choices and decisions determined their ultimate fate. In today’s world tragic heroes are commonly present,

Most readers are aware of the many famous deaths or acts of death within the Shakespearean plays. And when the main characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, indeed, the readers would categorize the play as a tragedy. The problem with any tragedy definition is that most tragic plays do not define the tragedy conditions explained or outlined by Aristotle. According to Telford (1961), a tragedy is a literary

Tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, is “a drama treating a serious subject and involving persons of significance” (Kirszner and Mandell 1086), the success of a tragedy occurs when the audience “feels both fear and pity because they see in themselves the potential for similar situations” (Kirszner and Mandell 1087). Aristotle’s literary theory of tragedy applies only to “imitation of persons who are above the common level, he must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous – a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or other illustrious men of such families” (Aristotle) because his theory was developed for application to the literary works of poets and playwrights such as Homer, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, whose works were the interpretations of Greek mythology. This means that one cannot look fully to Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero in application to modern literature. Therefore, many scholars and literary critics look to playwright Arthur Miller’s description written in his article Tragedy and the Common Man where he writes, “I believe that common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were” (Miller). Miller points out in his article that the common man can exhibit all the same qualities and characteristics as those of a man born into nobility, and that same common man can execute the same actions. But not all tragedies are heroic, there must be specific elements in the creation of a tragic hero that can be difficult to

The extent of which Othello is a tragic hero has been open to much debate; the basis on which he is judged falls to Aristotle’s established view of the crucial elements that distinguish whether a person is truly tragic. According to Aristotle, a tragic protagonist is a nobleman or person from high status, who contributes to his own demise and illustrates a flaw or weakness in judgment. The tragic protagonist must make a fall from a high state of being to a low state or death. The tragic hero’s downfall, said Aristotle, was brought upon by some error of judgement. Aristotle’s theory is not the final word on tragedy, however it can support in pinpointing the pivotal traits in

play has the perfect Aristotelian tragic plot consisting of peripateia, anagnorisis and catastrophe; it has the perfect tragic character that suffers from happiness to misery due to his hamartia (tragic flaw) and the play evokes pity and fear that produces the tragic effect, catharsis (a purging of emotion).

A tragic hero in literature is a type of character who has fallen from grace, where the downfall suggests feelings of misfortune and distress among the audience. The tragic flaw of the hero leads to their demise or downfall that in turn brings a tragic end. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” The characteristics of a tragic hero described by Aristotle are hamartia, hubris, peripeteia, anagnorisis, nemesis and catharsis which allows the audience to have a catharsis of arousing feelings.

Lastly, a Byronic hero has genuine guilt. This requires more action than contemplating, and continuously reiterating that a tragedy by his hand occurred. Manfred possesses all of these traits; however, Victor lacks true remorse and retention of his independence.

In Shakespeare?s play Othello, Othello himself is the tragic hero. He is an individual of high stature who is destroyed by his surroundings, his own actions, and his fate. His destruction is essentially precipitated by his own actions, as well as by the actions of the characters surrounding him. The tragedy of Othello is not a fault of a single person, but is rather the consequence of a wide range of feelings, judgments, misjudgments, and attempts for personal justification revealed by the characters.

Tragedy can expose humans fallibility and weaknesses. Traditionally, a tragic hero is established into three parts: hamartia, a hero’s tragic flaw; peripeteia, the change in the hero’s fortune; and catharsis, a hero’s tragic ending. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Shakespeare illustrates how a General, Othello get manipulated by his subordinate, Iago.Iago tells Othello that his wife, Desdemona is having an affair with his friend, Cassio. Othello deeply believes in Iago’s lies, and kills Desdemona and Cassio. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, Shakespeare uses hamartia, peripeteia and catharsis to show that Othello is a tragic hero. Ultimately, through Othello’s tragedy the audiences learn that one’s gullibility can lead their tragedy.

By using these guidelines, Shakespeare created one of his greatest Aristotelian tragedies. This is because he applied the Poetics’ guidelines to complex plot, the tragic hero, and the establishment of pity, fear, and catharsis of the audience’s emotions. The complex plot follows Othello and his transformation from nobleman to monster through the exploitation of his tragic flaw. As the plot moves from exposition, complication, challenge, conflict, climax, and finally to dénouement, Othello goes through a recognition scene which leads to a reversal in his fortune and his scene of suffering.

What is heroism? Things preformed Superman, Batman, or The Flash? This is what most people think about when they hear the word hero or heroism. Although these characters show heroism, the definition of heroism does not have to be narrowed to the stereotypical hero. Many people have different concepts on heroism. A hero can be a ordinary person like a firefighter or cop. Heroism is a attribute that a person can obtain but they have to choose actions that help others like a fearless firefighter or cop helping others. Heroism also does not call for a reward for being heroic. Heroism is a quality or an act in all of us that a person uses to benefit for the good of other people even if there is a risk.

Reeves, C. H. (1952). The Aristotelian Concept of the Tragic Hero. The American Journal of Philology, 73(2), 172–188. http://doi.org/10.2307/291812

However, for the Elizabethans, more specifically for Marlowe and Shakespeare, tragedy is not a restrictive view of human excellence or weakness as the Greeks are often inclined to present but an affirmative view of human aspirations whose pursuit brings a glory to the definition of a man. Struggle, conflict, suffering and failure may be the inescapable attendants but the human spirit is not stifled in its pursuits by what attends to them. The ability to withstand