Michael Jackson Tragic Hero Essay

The Greek philosopher Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment and brings his downfall to evoke the feelings of pity and fear among the audience.” Michael Jackson fits that category as he was a young man who was born with incredible talent and promise, and achieved unimaginable success early in his life. Michael was a boy with a predicted glorious future, but instead has lived a life full of even more strange and tragic events. Marcia Sirota, the author of the article, “Michael Jackson, Tragic Hero,” strongly argues that Michael Jackson should be known as “The tragic hero of our time.” Although he composed amazing music, his destruction was through the dramatic and tragic events he did.

Michael Jackson created his own tragic life style that eventually lead him to his destruction, but the
beginning of his life did not provide a good start. In her article, Sirota states, “Michael was verbally and physically abused as a young child, taunted by his father about the size of his nose and the color of his skin. Also, at a young age him and his brothers formed a group and became a tremendous hit (Michael Jackson, Tragic hero, Sirota).” Due to his father's harassment, Michael had a lot of surgeries done to try and make himself look better. For example, “He had a compulsive need for plastic surgery... (response to his father) (Michael Jackson, Tragic Hero, Sirota).” His need for looking better made it worse as he progress in doing the surgeries, like damaging his nose more, getting plastic surgery. Just like Macbeth when he changes his personality to become king, made him a hideous person from within and even a worse person from without. The bad choices that Michael made lead him to his downfall.

The reason for Michael’s downfall, was from the choices he made and the issues he had. Michael did things in his lifetime that were unimaginable. For instance, “Michael did wonderful things in his life, like “We are the World.” He did horrible things, like dangling his baby over the balcony of a Berlin hotel in front of a group of reporters. And he did bizarre things, like trying to buy the remains of John Merrick, the “Elephant Man” (Sirota Michael Jackson, Tragic hero).” Michael is human too, who does amazing things, does terrible things, or even crazy things, like everyone else. In life, no one is perfect and in time they’re going to experience either family personally or even money issues like Michael did. As Sirota states in the article “Michael Jackson, Tragic hero,” “Michael Jackson had tremendous money problems. His compulsive shopping had put him into so much debt that he’d been forced to sell off many of his prized possessions. He was counting on the concert tour to re-establish him, financially.” Yes, Michael Jackson was the “King of pop,” but that doesn’t mean that he was rich or didn’t have any financial issues, like everyone else. No matter how much he needed help, he never wanted it, so that agonized him.

Through his crazy actions, Michael demonstrated his need for help. It was not entirely his fault, he had people who wanted to use him and had difficult relationship with them. As Sirota states in her article, “He was in a number of dysfunctional relationships with people who were supposed to be looking out for him, but who instead, were exploiting him or pandering to him. Paradoxically, his fame and fortune made it much more likely that those around him would become enablers of his inappropriate and self-destructive behavior.” If Michael had the help from people he needed the most he wouldn’t been in a bad situation. That’s why he had trust issues and made dreadful decisions. On the other hand, there were people who wanted to actually guide him, but he just ignored there help and just went on with life. Even when Michael needed help the most, he still went through it on his own, with no help. As illustrated, “Unlike most people, however, he was able to thoroughly insulate himself from the genuinely caring individuals who wanted him to distance himself from the toxic enablers in his presence. He used his power and influence to surround himself with “yes-men” and avoid getting real help for his problems (Sirota Michael Jackson, Tragic hero).” Even with the people that loved and cared for him, he stilled did not want to take the help they were trying to give. Even with the help from others, he still had a lot of trust issues, from people he thought he could trust. Either way, help or not, Michael still made decisions on his own that were terrible. Many people have their perspective on if Michael Jackson fits the characteristics of a tragic hero.
Michael defines what a tragic hero is, as he was obsessed with his self image and kept trying to make himself look better. As stated, “A tragic flaw is one of the most defining parts of a tragic hero and Michael Jackson had many. But his biggest tragic flaw was that he was obsessed with his personal image yet he was unable to accept himself (Will Metzler, Prezi).” His insecurities was his biggest flaw he had, and that alone made a big impact on his life. A tragic hero does not have a happy ending, such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and so on. At the end Macbeth gets beheaded by Macduff and Lady Macbeth dies from the guilt that was inside her. Also, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo drinks poison when he sees Juliet asleep, and Juliet stabs herself, because she thought she was nothing without Romeo. Many think that Michael Jackson is a tragic hero, some not so much, but his untimely death proves how he was a tragic
hero.

Michael Jackson’s amazing voice, and music changed music history, but he still had many dramatic and tragic events that lead him to his destruction. Michael Jackson was a man with great talent and success, but due to his father, Michael suffered from many insecurities. Michael did stupendous things in life, did things that were inadequate, and had insecurities like everyone else. Many people thought that Michael was a perfect performer, singer and his image alone was just perfect. As stated in an article “For all Michael Jackson's flaws he was the greatest entertainer of his age,” by Richard Williams, “For all his tragic flaws as a human being, Jackson could legitimately be seen as the greatest entertainer of his generation, the natural successor to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.” That might be true that Michael was an amazing performer and entertainer in his life, but he still didn’t like the way he looked and changed the way he looked. Just like Macbeth, Michael tragically died, but the differences is that Macbeth died from his hunger for power, while Michael died from constant pressure. Michael Jackson will always be an inspiration to many, as sirota states in her article, he became known as a “tragic hero of our time.”