what is the AC Bradley's definition of a tragic hero?

Answer 1

Briefly summarized, Bradley's tragic hero (1) must be of "high degree," that is, a king, prince, commander, or the like, so that the welfare of others, perhaps a whole nation, is affected by his actions and certainly by his downfall.

His tragic hero (2) suffers a catastrophe; that is, his downfall and ultimately death. Furthermore, (3) the catastrophe must be determined, at least in part, by his own actions or character, specifically some "tragic flaw."

Finally, the tragic hero (4) must be "good" or admirable, or at the very least, a person whose "high degree" or greatness will be recognized by the audience, a person with whom the audience can identify, or who they understand to represent a general human nature.

[By the way, according to Bradley, the definition would be little altered if we used the term "tragic heroine." However, in practice, Shakespeare's tragic heroines appear only in love stories where there is both hero and heroine; e.g., Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra.]

Here are a few quotes that articulate Bradley's definition:

(1) "A total reverse of fortune, coming unawares upon a man who 'stood in high degree,' such was the tragic fact to the medieval mind. It appealed strongly to common human sympathy and pity; it startled also another feeling, that of fear. It frightened men and awed them. It made them feel that man is blind and helpless, the plaything of an inscrutable power, called by the name of Fortune or some other name -- a power which appears to smile on him for a little, and then on a sudden strikes him down in his pride.

"Shakespeare's idea of the tragic fact is larger than this idea and goes beyond it but it includes it . . . ."

(2) The hero's "fate affects the welfare of a whole nation or empire; and when he falls suddenly from the height of earthly greatness to the dust, his fall produces a sense of contrast, of the powerlessness of man. and of the omnipotence--perhaps the caprice--of, Fortune or Fate, which no tale of private life can possibly rival."

(3) " . . . the hero . . . always contributes in some measure to the disaster in which he perishes.

"This second aspect of tragedy evidently differs greatly from the first. Men, from this point of view, appear to us primarily as agents, 'themselves the authors of their proper woe'; and our fear and pity, though they will not cease or diminish, will be modified accordingly."

Finally, therefore, Bradley concludes with this brief definition of tragedy: "A tragedy is a story of exceptional calamity leading to the death of a man in high estate, . . . one of human actions producing exceptional calamity and ending in the death of such a man."

Answer 2

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what is the AC Bradley's definition of a tragic hero?