Tragic Hero Essay

The term ‘tragic hero’ comes up in media reports and in daily conversations, but people forget the true meaning of the word and what truly characterizes someone as a tragic hero. In Macbeth, written by world famous playwright, William Shakespeare, Macbeth exemplifies the term tragic hero as he fits all the criteria set out by literary critics. Initially, he is a hero who fights in solidarity with his countrymen; he possesses tragic flaws that lead him from happiness to misery, and his ignorance of

devastating story, and it displays a model of Shakespeare’s tragic hero as well. In this play, the character that Shakespeare created to be the tragic hero is Marcus Brutus. This is proven by Brutus’s noble birth, suffering a catastrophe and having a tragic flaw. Along with the model of a tragic hero, Shakespeare incorporates his own elements. All of these elements will be explained in detail in this essay. First, an element of a tragic hero is having a noble ancestor. Marcus Brutus’s noble ancestor

Antigone: Not the Tragic Hero Sophocles, a great tragedian, was the one who gave Greek tragedies their traditional form. An important part of traditional Greek tragedies is the presence of a tragic hero. All tragic heroes should have the characteristics of rank, a tragic flaw, a downfall, and a recognition of mistakes. The seemingly tragic hero is Antigone. She wants to bury her brother Polyneices even though this would be going against Creon, who is her uncle and the king. When Antigone buries

in the citizens eyes. This teaches us that when we ignore the words of others and only listen to ourselves, people will rise against you. In the end of the play these were the three traits that proved Creon to be a tragic hero. In this play Creon was developed into a tragic hero by showing his negative traits, selfishness, arrogance, and stubbornness could not be overcame to save himself. All of these negative traits were the reason his own family rose against him and caused him to lose the

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. Oedipus is well known and

Hamlet: A Tragic Hero William Shakespeare is known through the ages as a brilliant playwright. He has written several comedies and tragedies that people have loved through decades. Shakespeare’s plays have been interpreted in many different ways and have been debated on which interpretation is correct. Some of these included even the basis of the character’s persona. In the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet, the main protagonist, Prince Hamlet, is fated by the ghost of his late father that, because

in Corinth. Instead, he becomes responsible for triggering the destruction that leads to his eventual demise. A tragic hero is of noble birth characterized by a personality flaw and fated by the gods for doom (Santora). Oedipus is classified as a tragic hero by his tragic and heroic qualities, his responsibility for his fate, and his enlightenment. A tragic hero exhibits both tragic and heroic qualities, and Oedipus was no exception. Oedipus conquered the Sphinx and earned his title as King of

In literature, tragic heroes are described as otherwise perfect protagonists except for a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall in the end. Such examples include Othello in Shakespeare's Othello; Prince Hamlet is a tragic hero in Shakespeare’s Hamlet; the Salvatore brothers from The Vampire Diaries are both tragic heroes; and Oedipus in Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex is a tragic hero. Oedipus is the tragic hero who, mixing fate, pride, and lack of judgement, bring about tragedy to him and others

considered a tragic hero because he follows Aristotle's six elements of a tragedy. Another tragic hero who follows the same six elements of a tragedy is Oedipus from Oedipus the King. Based on Aristotle's six elements of a tragedy, position, flaw, prophecy, recognition, catastrophe, and reversal, the character Othello from Shakespeare's Othello can be considered a tragic hero. The first element of tragedy is position, which lets the reader know the position, or status, that the hero is in. In Othello

negative feelings and connotations. The ultimate tragic hero Oedipus, unknowingly kills his own father and then has a sexual relationship and subsequent marriage to his mother. However, this relationship emerged without Oedipus or his mother, Jocasta, prior knowledge that they were kin in anyway. Oedipus, in fact, truly exemplifies a tragic hero as Aristotle himself defined one to be. From the start of his life, Oedipus was thrown into series of tragic events that would shape not just his life but the