Qualities Of A True Hero In The Film Gladiator

What are Tragic Heroes? What makes true hero? Where can we find a true hero? Well, a hero can be classified in many ways. A true hero puts himself before others, is a selfless person and can make the right decision even when he wants to do something that will benefit him/herself. They are classified to be someone morally good, they are a person who can stare evil in the face and instead of saying “why me?” they say “Try me”. Now, where can we find an example of a hero to today's standards. Well in comics, or in a cartoon. Today's heroes are very different that the heros of the older times. Tragic heroes are very different from the heros that we know today. The way that the heros were classified was they had to have five qualities, Aristotle is the person who made these “heroic guidelines”. They must be of noble birth, have a fatal flaw (or achilles heel), a peripeteia (reversal of fortune), they must have an understanding of their mistake, and finally a fate greater than they deserved.
In the beginning Maximus is an army general working for the Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, and commands wins the war against the Germanic Tribes. This shows that even on the face of danger he rises above that and defeats them fairly easily. This is not the only thing that he does, because that would be boring, after he fight in the army he has to endure the time that he has in the Arena. He battles and battles and wins, by being the rebellious soul he is, he wins the hearts of the people. He spares the warriors he is put up against, and instead of killing them he spares them and defies the king. By being the merciful hero he is he is considered to be the hero of the