who is a tragic hero?

Question

explain who a tragic hero is and how brutus is the tragic hero in 'julius caesar"?

Answer 1

The term tragic hero is derived from the ancient greek drama. Most of the times it refers to the protagonist of the play and if you want a complete description of the term you could look through the writings of Aristotle who conducted an extensive research on greek drama. The main characteristics of a tragic hero are:

Hero must suffer more than he deserves.

Hero must be doomed from the start, but bear no responsibility for possessing his flaw.

Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him.

Hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.

Hero must see and understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions.

Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.

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.

The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes.

Brutus is an example of a tragic hero, following most of the concepts of the Aristotelian definition of the term. He is a noble person dedicated to the Roman republic and he is pursuing what he thinks is best for his country. He is also a true friend of Julius Ceasar. In addition to this he is forced to commit suicide as a result of his actions. He is also the leader of the conspiracy against Caesar and because of that other people have to follow his fate and suffer their lives. On the other hand Brutus' fate is not predetermined and he is not doomed from the start, but his fate is the result of his actions

Answer 2

Look up the word hubris. Tragic heroes all reflect a human universal weakness that is common to all men be it jealousy, pride, etc. Brutus was Caesar's true friend but he could not overcome his weakness. The tragic hero is universal man with man's universal weaknesses. The Greeks had masks that portrayed the weaknesses. Othello dearly loved Desdemona but could not overcome jealousy. A tragic hero has this flaw that he/she cannot overcome and this flaw results in the ruination of their lives and the lives of others.

Answer 3

I think a "tragic hero" is someone who tries to do the ultimate good, but his/her character flaws either obstruct the good actions, or his/her past deeds catch up to them by the time he/she tries to reform.
It's been to long since I've read about Julius Caesar for me to comment about Brutus, though.

Answer 4

According to the Greek plays course I took in college, a tragic hero is someone who is doomed by his own "fatal flaw" (such as the pride and rage of Menelaeus) to either construct his own tragic fate, or be unable to avoid it.

Brutus' tragic flaw (in my opinion) is his belief in the purity of the Senate and Roman law, leading him to betray his best friend. The tragedy is that, no matter which path he chooses, he is "shafted" by fate!

In one article in Wikipedia the Shakespearean version of Julius Caesar's demise reads: "Traditional readings of the play maintain that Cassius and the other conspirators are motivated largely by envy and ambition whereas Brutus is motived by the demands of honour and patriotism; other commentators, such as Isaac Asimov, suggest that the text shows Brutus is no less moved by envy and flattery. One of the central strengths of the play is that it resists categorising its characters as either simple heroes or villains."

My favorite, modern day hero is the character "Roy Hobbs" in the book/film, "The Natural". His fatal flaw is his pride and belief that he is "the best there ever was in the game". He is punished by a strange woman, who only shoots men like him, and later, by losing his two greatest loves, his childhood lover, Iris, and his career in baseball.

So, the essence of being a "tragic" hero, is the unavoidability of your fate and the conflict surrounding the choices you make.

Answer 5

Try reading Cyrano de Berjerac

Answer 6

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.

Precepts of the tragic hero
An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics:

1. Nobleness or wisdom (by virtue of birth).

2. Hamartia (translated as tragic flaw, somewhat related to hubris, but denoting excess in behavior or mistakes).

3. A reversal of fortune (peripetia) brought about because of the hero's tragic error.

4. The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis).

In a complex Aristotelian tragedy, the hero undergoes a peripetia, or a turn of fate that leaves him or her destitute, followed by anagnorisis, a point when the hero comes to the realization of his or her errors.

The tragic end of the hero ideally, according to Aristotle, gives the audience catharsis, or emotional purgation.

Some other common traits characteristic of a tragic hero:

Hero must suffer more than he deserves.
Hero must be doomed from the start, but bear no responsibility for possessing his flaw.
Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him.
Hero must have discovered his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.
Hero must see and understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions.
Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.
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.
The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes.

Classical tragic hero

Sophocles' Oedipus Rex was regarded by Aristotle as the greatest example of a tragic hero because Oedipus discovered the truth not by chance or divine agency (such as Homer or Euripides), but by his own relentless investigation, a trait shown embedded in himself from the beginning of the play.

Many writers since have tried to follow the idea of Aristotle's tragic hero, but it was during the English Renaissance that Shakespeare introduced a new idea of a tragic hero as dealing not only with a character flaw, but also with moral consequences. Hence, his tragic plays have mostly dealt with the interplay of morality and the thought processes of the tragic heroes. As an example, Hamlet is a tragic hero that fulfills Aristotle's requirements: he suffers more than he deserves, he was doomed from the start, he was noble in nature and also imperfect. However, unlike Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare gives Hamlet an internal thought process that questions himself through soliloquies on morality, delaying, and actions.

Macbeth, also considered a tragic hero, does not fit Aristotle's requirements for suffering more than he deserves, nor was he noble in nature. However, he does fulfill a requirement that the hero chooses his outcome. For example, despite the prophecy of the Weird Sisters predicting Macbeth's ascension as "king thereafter," Macbeth chose to kill Duncan. When the imaginary dagger appeared, he said:

I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Clearly, Macbeth was already set to assassinate Duncan. The dagger did not appear to tell him what to do, since he had already decided. This decision stands in contrast to Oedipus, who tried to avoid his fate, but failed to do so. As such, Shakespeare presents the idea of a moral quandary by presenting a person who willingly does the wrong things.

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 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. A recent claim to the status of a tragic hero is Anakin Skywalker of the Star Wars series, who fell under the spell of evil and became Darth Vader. However, George Lucas may have designed Anakin to be an eternal hero, like Gilgamesh and Beowulf, rather than a tragic hero. Under the guidance of Joseph Campbell, Lucas emphasized the return to the original hero by placing the setting not far in the future, but in the past. [1]

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/Jay Gatsby 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 - He receives more than he deserves; his attempt to protect his niece results in his ostracization - 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 - He realizes his wrong-doing at his death, reconciling with his niece and wife.

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.

In the popular fantasy series Harry Potter, Sirius Black is often considered to be a tragic hero, a trait which has made his character very popular with the fanbase.

Another example of a tragic hero is DC comics' Batman, who swore to avenge his parents' deaths by protecting Gotham City.

Another modern example is Jack Bauer of the television series 24, as his relentless sense of duty and employment at CTU costs him his family, personal life and eventually his freedom.