ABSTRACT
The Tragic Hero mis a special protagonist that has been a powerful teaching tool for writers. This is clear because such characters demand more emotions from their audience. Their miserable circumstances always leave the audience vulnerable for the message to be passed on. A clear example is Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The epinomous hero mis forced to question his ideologies regarding life, values and family. This is due to the apparition of his late father who visits him in order to ask young Hamlet to avenge his death. The weight of such a task forces the character in to a constant phase of psychological trauma. Such a situation will force the audience to have pity on our tragic protagonist. Pity mis the tragedians trummp card. it is the emotion that is paramount to any tragedy. Using a comparative Analysis of the modern tragic hero and the Aristotelian Tragic hero, I have been able to outline the changes to the character’s concept over time. This work clearly shows that there is a clear change in the traits required for the Aristotelian Tragic Hero as compared to its modern counter parts. Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welle’s Citizen Kane gives a voice to depressed children psychological traumas that they face growing up. This indicates that the common man is subject for study. This is different from Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex whose journey is mainly focused the influence of the super natural in the affairs of the high standing members of society. The research paper aims to address these differences in order to explain the evolution of the tragic hero.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
To properly understand a tragic hero, it is requisite that we explain what constitutes the
idea of a tragedy. Tragedy refers to any kind of literature in which the storyteller takes his or her hero or protagonist on a journey that depicts a somber theme and leads to their doom. According to Aristotle, “the purpose of tragedy is to arouse terror and pity and thereby affect the catharsis of these emotions. His exact meaning has been the subject of debate over centuries” (Britannica). Greek theatre is the birthplace of drama. Similarly, we can say Aristotelian Tragedy is the foundation on which the principles of Tragedy were coined. Drama started as a festival dedicated to gods, as in the case of Ancient Greece, where the festivals were devoted to the worship of Dionysus. These festivals were prominently called the Dionysia festival. It was held in the city of Dionysia, and entailed a competition between playwrights. The first three winners would be ranked accordingly. This event is also the birthplace of some words that are currently used in modern day literature, which include “protagonist” and “antagonist”. Protagonist is a Greek word that means first competitor, and antagonist means opposing competitor. Historically, tragedy in drama made provision for comic relief to cushion the effect of the heightened and serious impact of the narrative. Performing plays in the early times was easier than in the modern times as the number of characters and props, among other things, were fewer than in modern drama times. One of the reasons behind this is the fact that during the classical age, men were the only ones allowed to act. Greek philosopher Aristotle based his observations on previous dramas written by Tragedians before him. These include plays by Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides. From his
observations, Aristotle defined Tragedy as a replica of a noble and complete action, which, through compassion and fear, produces purification of passions. This in turn leads to catharsis (Poetics, 1).
The Greek philosopher outlines his understanding of Tragedy in his book Poetics. He uses the book to share his understanding of what Tragedy and comedy must entail. According to the famous Greek philosopher, Tragic heroes are those who commit misdeeds, or judgement error, without evil intentions, but these misdeeds or judgement errors ultimately lead to their downfall, or in some cases, the downfall of others (Aristotle). An example would be King Oedipus in Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King”. His anger drives him to unknowingly kill his father, and after saving his village he marries his mother. Once the character experiences anagnorisis, we see a chain of events begin to unfold. His wife kills herself and he plucks out his eyes to save himself from the horrors of his actions.
