Tragic Hero Macbeth & Oedipus
BIS3043: CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF DRAMA
FIRST ASSIGNMENT: TRAGIC HERO
DR.LAJIMAN JANOORY
GROUP A
SEMESTER 3 2012/2013
FARIDA HAMIMI BT MUHAMAD SAIDI
D20111047721
AT06-TESL
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND COMMUNICATIONS
Questions: Aristotle in the Poetics defines the tragic hero as someone who is neither excessively evil, someone who is rather like ourselves, who falls from prosperity into adversity because of an error and/or character falling. Discuss this statement with close reference to main characters from plays you have studied.
According to Aristotle, he defines tragic hero as someone who has a nobility status or a powerful man with some greatness and outstanding qualities within himself. As can be seen in almost plays, tragic heroes are always being portrayed as someone that occupy a high status but must also illustrates nobility and virtue as part of his or her innate characters, (Poetics from Aristotle). However, these heroes are not all perfects. There will be some tragic incidents that eventually lead them to the downfall. This is due to the heroes’ own faults and in fact, in some cases the tragic incidents are usually triggered by some error judgments or some characters’ flaws that could contributes to the hero’s downfall. “Hamartia” or the error of judgments is also known as “tragic flaw” is one of the sixth qualities from tragic heroes according to Aristotle. Other than that, an overwhelming self-confidence or in Greek tragedies, it is known as “hubris” also one of the factors that leads to the downfall of the hero. Furthermore, another idea of Aristotle regarding tragic hero is that the tragic downfall is not solely a pure loss but there is some great lessons and values that can be gained from the tragic hero himself. Even though eventually there will be a tragic ending to the characters however, according to Aristotle the tragedy does not leave its audiences in a state of depression. He argues that solemn emotions
FIRST ASSIGNMENT: TRAGIC HERO
DR.LAJIMAN JANOORY
GROUP A
SEMESTER 3 2012/2013
FARIDA HAMIMI BT MUHAMAD SAIDI
D20111047721
AT06-TESL
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND COMMUNICATIONS
Questions: Aristotle in the Poetics defines the tragic hero as someone who is neither excessively evil, someone who is rather like ourselves, who falls from prosperity into adversity because of an error and/or character falling. Discuss this statement with close reference to main characters from plays you have studied.
According to Aristotle, he defines tragic hero as someone who has a nobility status or a powerful man with some greatness and outstanding qualities within himself. As can be seen in almost plays, tragic heroes are always being portrayed as someone that occupy a high status but must also illustrates nobility and virtue as part of his or her innate characters, (Poetics from Aristotle). However, these heroes are not all perfects. There will be some tragic incidents that eventually lead them to the downfall. This is due to the heroes’ own faults and in fact, in some cases the tragic incidents are usually triggered by some error judgments or some characters’ flaws that could contributes to the hero’s downfall. “Hamartia” or the error of judgments is also known as “tragic flaw” is one of the sixth qualities from tragic heroes according to Aristotle. Other than that, an overwhelming self-confidence or in Greek tragedies, it is known as “hubris” also one of the factors that leads to the downfall of the hero. Furthermore, another idea of Aristotle regarding tragic hero is that the tragic downfall is not solely a pure loss but there is some great lessons and values that can be gained from the tragic hero himself. Even though eventually there will be a tragic ending to the characters however, according to Aristotle the tragedy does not leave its audiences in a state of depression. He argues that solemn emotions
References: Modern Day Tragic Hero- Ben Johnson retrieved from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Modern-Day-Tragic-Hero-Ben-176035.html Aristotle & The Elements Of Tragedy- Definition of tragedy from The Poetics of Aristotle retrieved from http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/aristotletragedy.html Oedipus as a Tragic Hero retrieved from http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=127182 Macbeth – Tragic Hero retrieved from http://www.field-of-themes.com/shakespeare/essays/Emacbeth3.htm#top Aristotle’s tragedy retrieved from http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/tragedy/aristotle.htm