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    The Tragic Hero

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    Noor Khan
    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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    The Tragic Hero

    Uploaded by

    Noor Khan
    227 views3 pages
    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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    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.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    227 views3 pages

    The Tragic Hero

    Uploaded by

    Noor Khan
    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.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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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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