Tragic Hero

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Tragic Hero

The tragic hero must be a man or woman grat and admirable both in his powers and his opportunities who is well respected by his society. He should be so placed in society (e.g. a king, a nobleman, a general of an army) that his actions involve the well-being of its members. However, he has a tragic flaw in his character (e.g. pride {King Lear}, ambition {Macbeth}, jealousy {Othello}, idealism {Brutus}.

The plot of the play should show him working to achieve some goal very dear to him and which will involve him in choices in the results of which he cannot foresee and which cannot be halted.

His downfall must be the result of these choices due to an error of judgement, or character flaw. This is known as hamartia and is usually translated as tragic flaw. Often the character's hamartia involves hubris (overwhelming pride). So he is "trapped" and the consequences of his actions make him tragic.

The hero's fall is not pure loss. There is increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge, some discovery on the part of the tragic hero.

When it is too late to escape, the hero comes to realise what has happened to him and finally dies.

The audience generally knows more than the hero and so sees his destiny at work before he dies. This sets an ironical tension and often gets the sympathy of the audience. The hero's death releases the tension and also often releases the hero's society from the disorder his downfall has caused.

Though it arouses solemn emotion, tragedy does not leave its audience in a state of depression. Aristotle argues that one function of the tragedy is to arouse the "unhealthy" emotions of pity and fear and through a catharsis to cleanse us of those emotions.

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