Tragic hero

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A tragic hero is a literary character who makes errors in judgment, usually in his or her actions, that inevitably leads to his or her own demise (death).^[1]

1 Characteristic features
2 Other common traits
3 Tragic virtue
4 Modern fictional tragic heroes
5 References

[edit] Characteristic features

Aristotle once said that "A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." An Aristotelian tragic hero must possess specific characteristics, five of which are below:^[2]

Nobility (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth).
Hamartia (translated as flaw or error in judgment). Either a mistake in the character's actions or in his personality that leads to a downfall.
A reversal of fortune (peripeteia) brought about because of the hero's Hamartia.
The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis)
The audience must feel pity and fear (fear that it could have been them) (catharsis) for the character.

Initially, the tragic hero should be neither better nor worse morally than normal people, in order to allow the audience to identify with him. This also introduces pity, which is crucial in tragedy, for if the hero were perfect we would either be outraged with his fate or not especially care due to his ideological superiority. If the hero were evil, then the audience would feel that he had gotten what he deserved. It is important to strike a balance in the hero's character.

Eventually the Aristotelian tragic hero dies a tragic death, having fallen from great heights and having made an irreversible mistake. The hero must courageously accept his or her death with honor. This is not the case with all tragic heroes, since Oedipus does not in fact kill himself.

[edit] Other common traits

Some other common traits characteristic of a tragic hero:

The hero is led to his downfall due to hubris, or excessive pride.
The hero usually has an epic battle with a counterpart where they fight to the death for what they believe in.
The hero must be doomed from the start, but bears no responsibility for possessing his flaw.
The hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.
The hero must see and understand his doom, and that his fate was revealed by his own actions.
The hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.
The hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.
Ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him. This could also include a leader of a family, like Allie Fox in The Mosquito Coast.
The hero must be intelligent enough to have the opportunity to learn from his mistakes.
The hero must be faced with a very serious decision.
The suffering of the hero must have meaning.
There may be supernatural involvement (Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Caesar was warned of his death through Calphurnia's vision, Brutus was warned of his impending death by his evil spirit)
A tragic hero's story generally follows a sequence of "Great, Good, Flaw, Downfall."
The Shakespearean tragic hero must die at some point in the story, for example Macbeth. Shakespeare's characters illustrate that tragic heroes are neither fully good nor fully evil. Through the development of the plot a hero's flaws, rather than his quintessential goodness or evil, cause him to make a mistake which leads to his tragic downfall.
The hero of classical tragedies is almost universally male. Later tragedies (like Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra) introduced the female tragic hero. Feminine portrayals of the tragic hero are notable because they are rare.^[3] Female protagonists in the Western literary tradition are generally portrayed as intrinsically good or intrinsically evil. The 'intrinsic' nature of traditional female characters' morality undermines the possibility for female characters' tragic mistakes or flaws to contribute to plot development as protagonists. Rather, these two-dimensional characters contribute as an outside force influencing the actions of the 'real' protagonists.

Character must come in contact with many conflicts, and overcome an amount of them.

[edit] Tragic virtue

An alternative view of the tragic hero, especially in Renaissance British literature, is one in which he or she possesses a tragic virtue (as opposed to the Classical idea of Hamartia). In this paradigm the hero exhibits traits that would under other conditions be considered desirable but due to external circumstances cause their eventual undoing. For example Shakespeare's character Hamlet is often criticized for his contemplative nature. Hamlet's failure to act is cited as his tragic flaw.

[edit] Modern fictional tragic heroes

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 modern hero, rather than falling calamitously from a high position, begins the story as what appears to be an ordinary, average person. For example, Miller's Joe Keller in All My Sons is an average man, which serves to illustrate Miller's belief that all people, not just the nobility, are affected by materialism and Capitalist values. The modern hero's story does not require the protagonist to have the traditional catharsis to bring the story to a close. He may die without an epiphany of his destiny, and he may 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 hero of Modernism is the anti-hero, and may not be a tragic hero at all.