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The Tragic Hero

According to Aristotle, the ideal tragic hero is neither perfectly virtuous nor entirely wicked. He is generally a good person who makes a single error in judgment or has a small character flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall. This creates feelings of pity and fear in the audience as they see a good man face undeserved suffering due to a minor shortcoming. Aristotle argues this type of hero and plot best elicits the desired emotional response from viewers of tragedy.

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Noor Khan
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347 views3 pages

The Tragic Hero

According to Aristotle, the ideal tragic hero is neither perfectly virtuous nor entirely wicked. He is generally a good person who makes a single error in judgment or has a small character flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall. This creates feelings of pity and fear in the audience as they see a good man face undeserved suffering due to a minor shortcoming. Aristotle argues this type of hero and plot best elicits the desired emotional response from viewers of tragedy.

Uploaded by

Noor Khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The ideal tragic hero, according to Aristotle, should be, in the first

place, a man of eminence. The actions of an eminent man would be


‘serious, complete and of a certain magnitude’, as required by
Aristotle. Further, the hero should not only be eminent but also
basically a good man, though not absolutely virtuous. The sufferings,
fall and death of an absolutely virtuous man would generate feelings of
disgust rather than those of ‘terror and compassion’ which a tragic
play must produce. The hero should neither be a villain nor a wicked
person for his fall, otherwise his death would please and satisfy our
moral sense without generation the feelings of pity, compassion and
fear. Therefore, the ideal tragic hero should be basically a good man
with a minor flaw or tragic trait in his character. The entire tragedy
should issue from this minor flaw or error of judgment. The fall and
sufferings and death of such a hero would certainly generate feelings
of pity and fear. So, Aristotle says: “For our pity is excited by
misfortunes undeservedly suffered, and our terror by some
resemblance between the sufferer and ourselves.” Finally, Aristotle
says: “There remains for our choice a person neither eminently
virtuous nor just, nor yet involved in misfortune by deliberate vice or
villainy, but by some error or human frailty; and this person should
also be someone of high-fame and flourishing prosperity.” Such a man
would make an ideal tragic hero.

The characteristics of Tragic Hero


According to Aristotle, in a good tragedy, character supports plot. The
personal motivation / actions of the characters are intricately involved
with the action to such an extent that it leads to arouse pity and fear
in the audience. The protagonist / tragic hero of the play should have
all the characteristics of a good character. By good character, Aristotle
means that they should be:

1. True to the self


2. True to type
3. True to life
4. Probable and yet more beautiful than life.
The tragic hero having all the characteristics mentioned above, has, in
addition, a few more attributes. In this context Aristotle begins by the
following observation,

● A good man – coming to bad end. (Its shocking and disturbs


faith)
● A bad man – coming to good end. (neither moving, nor moral)
● A bad man – coming to bad end. (moral, but not moving)
● A rather good man – coming to bad end. (an ideal situation)
Aristotle disqualifies two types of characters – purely virtuous and
thoroughly bad. There remains but one kind of character, who can best
satisfy this requirement – ‘A man who is not eminently good and just
yet whose misfortune is not brought by vice or depravity but by some
error of frailty’. Thus the ideal Tragic Hero must be an intermediate
kind of a person- neither too virtuous nor too wicked. His misfortune
excites pity because it is out of all proportion to his error of
judgement, and his over all goodness excites fear for his doom. Thus,
he is a man with the following attributes: He should be a man of mixed
character, neither blameless nor absolutely depraved. His misfortune
should follow from some error or flaw of character; short of moral
taint. He must fall from height of prosperity and glory. The protagonist
should be renowned and prosperous, so that his change of fortune can
be from good to bad. The fall of such a man of eminence affects entire
state/nation. This change occurs not as the result of vice, but of some
great error or frailty in a character. Such a plot is most likely to
generate pity and fear in the audience. The ideal tragic hero should be
an intermediate kind of a person, a man not preeminently virtuous and
just yet whose misfortune is brought upon him not by vice or depravity
but by some error of judgement. Let us discuss this error of judgement
in following point.
The meaning of ​Hamartia
Hamartia​ (‘fatal flaw’ or ‘tragic flaw’) may consist of a moral flaw, or it
may simply be a technical error/ error of judgement, or, ignorance, or
even, at times, an arrogance (called ​hubris​ in Greek). It is owing to
this flaw that the protagonist comes into conflict with Fate and
ultimately meets his/her doom through the workings of Fate (called
Dike​ in Greek) called Nemesis.

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