Tragic hero
A tragic hero is an honorable protagonist with a tragic flaw, also known as fatal flaw, which eventually leads to his demise. The concept of the tragic hero was created in ancient Greek tragedy and defined by Aristotle. An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics: goodness, superiority - such asin terms of politics, reputation, or perceived wisdom, a tragic flaw, and a realization of both his flaw and his inevitable demise. Usually, the realization of fatal flaw results in catharsis or epiphany. The tragic flaw is sometimes referred to as an Achilles' heel after the single fatal flaw of the Greek warrior Achilles.
Classical tragic hero
The mythical figure known as Herakles to the Greeks and Hercules to the Romans is an example of a hero possessed of enormous strength and a divine lineage, but possessed with the fatal flaw of uncontrollable anger. In a fit of rage, he kills his wife and children, he becomes the servant of King Eurysthenis and then must undertake twelve labors (extremely difficult feats) in a decade long quest to redeem himself. His struggles made Hercules the embodiment of an idea the Greeks called pathos, the experience of virtuous struggle and suffering which would lead to fame and, in Hercules' case, immortality as a constellation in the heavens.
The works of Antigone and Oedipus Rex are examples of the flaw of hubris, or pride. Many plays have followed Aristotle's idea of the tragic hero, but William Shakespeare was considered the playwright who helped extend the idea of the tragic hero beyond a flaw of making an error in judgment (as in Oedipus trying to escape his fate only to fulfill it) to the internal conflict of moral argument.
While Shakespeare's King Lear and Brutus of Julius Caesar are heroes who can be easily applied with the Aristotlean definition, his Hamlet and Macbeth are the two prime tragic heroes where Aristotle's meaning ends and Shakespeare's begins. Hamlet's fatal flaw, as seen by Aristotle, would be his failure to act immediately to kill Claudius. Unlike Oedipus, however, Hamlet is well aware of his fatal flaw from the outset. He constantly questions himself on why he continues to delay the fulfillment of his duty. In doing so, his continuous awareness and doubt (e.g. using the play-within-the-play to make sure the Ghost was telling the truth) incapacitates him from acting. Hamlet finally acts to kill Claudius only after realizing that he is poisoned. But by procrastinating, everyone whom he ridicules and targets also dies along the way, such as Laertes, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
Macbeth, however, presents a problem; whereas in Hamlet, we are made to feel some degree of empathy or sorrow for the hero because of the loss of his father and his mother's marriage to his uncle, Macbeth as the hero arouses little pity or feeling. His tragic flaw is that of being power-hungry, conniving, and utterly amoral when the opportunity suits him (note how in Act III, Scene I the third murderer is not present at Macbeth's briefing and yet in Act III, Scene III he is more informed than the other two murderers on what they are about to do). Macbeth does not possess two of the qualifying factors for a "traditional" tragic hero. He lacks goodness; he is also not superior, having been referred to by other thanes as a tyrant and an incompetent ruler during his kingship. At the beginning of the play however Macbeth is viewed as great, when he is being described as superior in battle by the Sergeant and when described by Duncan. Macbeth may be an early example of an Anti-hero.
The modern tragic hero
In the Modernist era, a new kind of tragic hero was synthesized as a reaction to the English Renaissance, The Age of Enlightenment, and Romanticism. The idea was that the hero, rather than falling calamitously from a high position, is actually a person less worthy of consideration. Not only that, the protagonist may not even have the needed catharsis to bring the story to a close. He may die without an epiphany of his destiny, or suffer without the ability to change events that are happening to him. The story may end without closure and even without the death of the hero. This new tragic hero of Modernism is the anti-hero.
Two of many examples of the anti-hero in modern literature are Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and James Gatz from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Another example of a modern Greek Tragedy by Arthur Miller is 'A View from the Bridge'. The ways in which it is similar to a Greek Tragedy are plentiful. For example, Greek Tragedies always have a chorus and in 'A View from the Bridge' Alfieri is the chorus. He is detached and yet involved in the action which is exactly what choruses in traditional Greek tragedies did. As well as the play being similar to a Greek tragedy, the main character, Eddie, is similar to a Tragic hero. Here are some similarities: - he is his own undoing, like tragic heroes, as it is his own knife that kills him. - his downfall is inevitable, the ironic telling of Vinny Bolsano at the beginning of the play - Like tragic heroes, he has a choice to make and is on the brink of two duties - He has a forbidden desire, which is a universal truth - He has a fatal flaw like tragic heroes always do
Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is another example of the tragic anti-hero. Ethan, the protagonist, is married to Zeena, but falls in love with Mattie, Zeena's cousin, when she comes over to live with them. As a character, Zeena is sickly and unbendingly cruel. Her coldness to Ethan drives him to Mattie. The love between Mattie and Ethan grows, but they are unable to act on their feelings. The setting in which Ethan and Mattie are trapped, presented as raging winter blizzard that denies both entrance and exit, drives both of them to try to commit suicide by sledding down and hitting an elm tree. A true and cathartic tragedy would have been for both of them to die like Romeo and Juliet, but as this is a story of the anti-hero, Mattie and Ethan continue to live, but crippled. Ethan has a limp, and Mattie is paralyzed from the neck down. Now Zeena has somehow recovered enough from her sickness to take care of them. This reversal of fortune is considered ironic: Ethan used to take care of Zeena but would rather avoid her; by the end of the story, Zeena is taking care of Ethan and Mattie and enjoys being their caretaker.
Moreover, another irony is that winter is over, but Ethan and Mattie remained trapped. This time, it is not the blizzard but their physical conditions that trap them, forever reminding of their mistakes.
A very recent claimed tragic hero is Anakin Skywalker of the Star Wars series. Like those before him, Anakin had a tragic flaw that led to his demise. There are two possible fatal flaws. The first might be Anakin's fear of loss. A supreme example of irony similar to Oedipus, his unwillingness to accept the premonition of his loss caused that very loss to happen. The second fatal flaw might be anger. Anakin destroyed everything he loved because he was too quick to rage. He became Darth Vader, serving the malevolent Emperor Palpatine, because he was angry that his mother could be tortured to death and his wife could die. He believed that the galaxy would be a better place if he gained more power and was free to impose his will on others. However, his blindness from anger allowed Obi-Wan Kenobi to dismember his legs and other arm. The volcano of Mustafar eventually burned him, leaving him horribly disfigured.
Despite this, he still had aspirations to control the galaxy, especially trying to convince his son Luke Skywalker to join him. He was only redeemed after he sacrificed his life to save his son.
Competing precepts of the tragic hero
A tragic hero was considered to need a catharsis, or a moment of emotional purgation, but it comes at a time when it is too late to change the course of events already in motion. Each new era of literature brings new definitions of what a hero must be in a tragedy. Aristotle's definition remains the yardstick against which all other forms of heroes are measured.
Some other common traits characteristic of a tragic hero:
- He/she must suffer.
- He/she must be doomed from the start.
- He/she must be fundamentally noble in nature.
- His/her story should arouse fear and empathy.
- "Star-crossed" to meet a particular fate.
- Physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences (ie Post-traumatic stress disorder)