The Importance Of Ambition

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,

Ambition; an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honour, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment

Tragedy, like comedy, is in the eyes of the beholder and what makes a particular fictional character more tragic than another can be argued until the end of time. However, despite this, it seems that an undeniable part of what makes a character tragic is their ability to save themselves from their predicament but, for whatever reason, refuse to do so, thus damning themselves to their wretched fate. Likewise, the more obvious this ability, the more control that a character has over their fate, the more tragic their eventual downfall. Moreover, coupled with the preventable nature of the character’s tragic fate, is this fate’s unpredictability, which causes the audience to, even until the very end, have hope that the tragic character will triumph over their predicament. Furthermore, this is all merged with the ultimate insignificance of the tragic character’s demise and how, despite all their struggles, they are eventually rendered wholly irrelevant and forgotten. Hence, the most tragic of the three protagonists studied is Jay Gatsby because his final fate, compared to that of Willy Loman’s or Macbeth’s is the most unpredictable, had the least impact on society, and, ultimately, was the most avoidable.

Discuss the idea developed by the text creator in your chosen text about the impact of an individual’s ambition on self and others.

Throughout my study of “Othello”, I have learnt of the many aspects of Othello’s character. He is noble and strong, yet he has many insecurities and is recognised for trusting others too easily. This causes him to obtain the famous title of ‘tragic hero’. According to Greek philosopher Aristotle there are certain characteristics of a tragic hero. These include a noble birth, a tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall, a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero’s tragic flaw, his actions results in an increase of self-awareness and the audience must feel pity or fear for the character.

In William Shakespeare's classic tragedy “Julius Caesar” the characters are all positioned on a path that leads them to a terrible and disastrous end. Some destroy themselves for the greater good of Rome or just because of their own selfish greed for power. Some characters proceed to destroy others in hopes of protecting the greater good, but lose those closest to them. Cassius leads a dark conspiracy and kills Julius Caesar, but later kills himself. Marc Antony and Octavius track down and kill the assassins that killed Caesar, but lose those they care about most along the way. A true hero will rise to adversity and meet a situation head on to conquer the problem or his foes; however, a tragic hero may do just the opposite. A tragic

Ambition is a critical need to maintain our productive lives. It gives humans something meaningful to work for and motivates them to become better for themselves. Without ambition no one would want to improve anything, leading to nothing getting done as hope fades away and humans settle into their assigned roles. Therefore it has influenced our species to climb up to imaginable heights and strive to become the respected leader one day. But, being too ambitious can lead to different outcomes as shown in Into Thin Air and Macbeth.

Tragic heroes are the literary characters who suffer the most in a story, novel or a play. “Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may, of course, be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning.” said the famous critic Northrop Frye. These literary characters are the essential piece of a tragedy.

Before beginning, however, it is necessary to examine the aim of Tragedy. A Tragic work, according to Aristotle, was simply one that showed men as better than they typically are in everyday reality. Tragedy served to show mankind at his noblest, without, however, depicting man as unreal or unbelievable. To represent a noble man

The prominent Aristotle suggests that a hero of a tragedy must evoke in the audience a sense of pity or fear, saying, “the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity." The best tragic hero is a man not pre-eminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, is brought upon him not by vice and depravity but by some error of judgement. The change in the hero’s fortunes must not be from misery to happiness, but on the contrary from happiness to misery,

Tragic heroes, according to Miller, actively and entirely commits themselves in a hopeless attempt to attain or regain their personal dignity. Miller states, “the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing--his sense of personal dignity” (144). This statement emphasizes the absence of “personal dignity” that the character seeks to gain or regain, and it

Their fatal flaw or weakness in their character that brings about their downfall, is the main characterstic of these heroes. Many factors play major roles into these personas. Since these heroes experience a “downfall”, they must come from noble birth or some high ranking position, and the path to their downfall is often plagued by one or a series of poor choices. Towards the end of the work, the readers might feel sympathy or pity for these characters, which is an indication that the punishment for these heroes was too harsh for their shortcomings. The aim of the difficulty of the tragic heroes is to teach the readers valuable lesson.

Everyone is born with a capacity for great evil. The idea of freedom and absence of law alters our character to ignore values and virtues, exposing our egotistic personality. Over the course of the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, unchecked ambitions awakens evil within characters, allowing them to be compared and contrasted. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth is initially presented as a confident yet ruthless individual who lacks concern for the well being of others. Meanwhile, Macbeth, the new Thane of Cawdor is able to maintain loyalty to King Duncan but also Scotland, being a character that easily obtains sympathy from the audience. Therefore, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can be compared and contrasted to one another for their apparent similarities and differences in character. This is achieved by examining their personalities, decisions made and the conflicts they are involved in.

The character of Oedipus exemplifies these elements of strong personality embodied by tragic action. Lastly, Aristotle thinks that the fate of the tragic character must be reconciled with the audience. The suffering has some specific cause and purpose to reach a resolution, or in direct terms a "catharsis." Without this resolution, the suffering would be for nothing and the tragedy has less meaning.

“Successful, ambitious people need both energy and goals to succeed. Someone with plenty of energy but no goals may find themselves pursuing one opportunity after another without success, wondering what it is that they are wanting out of life. Someone with goals but no energy may find themselves wanting to achieve success, but too complacent to do the work to go about pursuing their goals” (businessdictionary.com). This quote says that even though ambition gives you the motivation to achieve your goals. People may quit when the work becomes too hard, but striving to reach a certain goal will come with stress and failure. We must use those failures to learn from the mistakes we make and use it as a motivation to achieve. If you learn to set desirable goals for yourself, and approach them with an optimistic attitude, you are well on your way to the success you desire.