Assignment : Paper – 3

         Topic : Tragic Hero

         Name :  Patel  Payal G.

      Roll no : 32

      M.A Part 1 (sem-1)

         Batch :  2010-11

         Submitted to : Dr. Dilip Barad

           Department of English

          Bhavnagar University.

                   

                               Tragic   Hero

     

·    What are the characteristics of Tragic Hero?

                                             According to Aristotle, in a good tragedy, character supports plot. The personal action of the characters are intricately involved with the action to such an extent that it leads to arouse Pity and Fear in the audience. The tragic- hero of the play should have all the characteristic of a good character. By good character, Aristotle means that they should be;

ü True to the self

ü True to type

ü True to life

 Probable and yet more beautiful than life

                                    

                                      The tragic hero is having all the characteristics mentioned above, has, in addition, a few more attribute. Aristotle observes : 

o  A good man – coming to bad end   

It is shocking and disturbs faith.

                                   Generally, we can not put any tragic hero into this column because it is impossible for any hero to be thoroughly good.

o  A bad man – coming to good end

Neither moving nor moral

                                     For example; in Henry Fielding’s novel ‘Tom Jones’, the character of Tom Jones is considered to be a bad man and he comes to the good end. He is a rather bad man but at the end of the novel he comes to the good end.

o  A bad man – coming to bad end

Moral but not moving

                                      There are also some bad characters that come to their bad ends. For example; in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by ‘William Shakespeare’, the character of ‘Shylock’ is of a bad man and also comes to his gad end.

o  A rather good man – coming to bad end

Aristotle considers this situation as an ideal situation.

                                      There are many characters that are suitable for this column. For example ‘Oedipus’ (the king) in Greek play “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles, is a rather good man, he is not thoroughly a good man but he is mixture of both and so he is rather good man who comes to his tragic end. Then we can put the characters of Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet etc in this column.

                                        There are some qualities which are common to both the heroes, simple and tragic hero.

First what is hero?

-     Who is better than common man

-     Brave and courageous

-     Helpful to others

-     No evil – virtue is there

-     Epitome of morality

-     Fighting spirit

-     Nobility – humbleness

-     Capable to see ‘good’

-     Intelligent

-     He is able to judge what is good and evil

                         So, tragic hero is also bound by some of these attributes including fatal flaw (Hamartia).

·     What is Hamartia ?

                  Aristotle observes;

-     Hamartia means

-     Error of Judgment

-     Ignorance

-     Tragic flaw- fatal flaw

-     Moral frailty

-     Misfortune

                                      Sometime to become too much good is also one kind of Hamatia. Another thing for Hamartia is that misfortune means something has to be destined. For example; Macbeth was not destined to become a king. Destiny also plays important role in the fall of hero. He is one who has all the above given attributes.

                                        These are the sheds of Hamartia which can be found in high and law magnitude indifferent kinds of tragic hero

                                                  Hamartia

                  Peripetia                                                   Anagnorisis

                (Both can be happened)

·      According to Aristotle; Tragic Hero is

-     Mixture of both good and evil

-     Better than we are

-     Has error of judgment

-     Arouse pity and fear

Aristotle says that the tragic hero will most effectively evoke both our pity and fear, if he is neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly bad but a mixture of both and also that tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is better than we are in the sense that he is if higher than ordinary moral world.

He should be a man of mixed character, neither blameless nor absolutely depraved. His misfortune should follow from some error or flow of character, short of moral taint. He must fall from the height of prosperity and glory.

                                                Aristotle says that the ideal tragic hero must be an intermediate kind of person, a man not prominently virtuous and just yet whose misfortune is brought upon him not by vice or depravity but by some error of judgment.

·    What is this Error of Judgment?

                               Aristotle uses here Hamartia often translated “tragic flaw”. A.C. Bradely has given his views about this term. Oedipus was hasty in temper, Macbeth was ambitious, Othello had pride and jealous. So, these things are not associated with tragic flaw or hamartia in Aristotle’s sense.

                                            The meaning of Hamartia is closer to ‘mistake’ than to ‘flaw’,  ‘a wrong step blindly taken’ , the missing of mark’’ and it is best interpreted in the context of what Aristotle has to say about “the law of Probability”

                                             Aristotle says that in the ideal tragedy the protagonist will mistakenly bring about his own downfall not because he is sinful or morally weak, but because he does not know enough. The role of the ‘hamartia’ in tragedy comes not from its moral status but from the inevitability of consequences.

                                                Butcher and Bywater, both agree that ‘hamartia’ is not a moral thing. This error of judgment may arise from 1. Ignorance of some material fact or circumstances. Hamartia is accompanied by moral imperfections (for example Oedipus and Macbeth). So, the peripetia is really one or more self- destructive actions taken in blindness, leading to results ‘diametrically’ opposed to those that were intended and the anagnorisis is the gaining of the essential knowledge that was previously lacking.

                                                  Butcher says that, Oedipus the king- including all three meanings of ‘hamartia’. Which in England can not be termed by a signal term Othello is the modern example, Oedipus in the ancient, are the two most conspicuous examples of ruin wrought by characters, noble but not without defects acting in the dark and, as it seemed, for the best.

                                                   In modern plays; Hamartia is practically removed from the hero and he becomes victim of circumstances, a mere puppet, the villain in Greek play was destiny, now its circumstances. The hero was powerful, he struggled but at the end of the day, death is inevitable. Modern heroes, dies several deaths- passive- not the doer of the action but receiver. The concept of heroic figures in tragedy has now become practically out of the ages. When men of noble birth and eminent positions were viewed as the representative figures of society. Today common man is representative of society and life. For example; in Arthur Miller’s play ‘’ Death of a Salesman’’, William (Willy) Loman is a protagonist as well as a tragic hero and also a modern hero. Also he comes to his tragic end because of his faults and especially because of circumstances. So, the definition of ‘Hamartia’ is now changed in modern tragedies.

                                                  As far as the characteristics of tragic hero is concerned, tragic hero arouses ‘Catharsis’ – Pity and Fear, these two emotions also.

                                                   Aristotle grounds his analysis the very structure and incidents of the play on the same principle; the plot; he says, which will most effectively evoke tragic pity and fear is one in which the events develop through complication to a Catastrophe.

·    Catharsis:

                                          The process of reading a novel or witnessing a tragedy is the process of Catharsis. Pity and Fear simultaneously rise in our heart. We feel pity for the hero who undergoes undeserved sufferings in tragedy and fear the terrible state of suffering into which the hero is trapped. We transcend the narrow sphere of our own existence and synthesize ourselves with the hero through the hero we become one with the humanity at large. This is what prof. Butcher argues in his famous essay on Catharsis. For example; when we witness ‘Samson Agonists’ staged we feel twin emotions of fear and pity seeing the sufferings of blinded, trapped and tortured Samson. Thus, Samson’s sufferings of whole humanity become our own. Similarly, Oedipus in Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus Rex’, moves us to pity because, since he is not an evil man, his misfortune is greater than he deserves; but he moves us also fear, because we recognize similar possibilities of error in our own to some extent. At the end we feel, what Milton calls;

                    “Calm of mind; all passions spent.”

Through the tragic hero we experience Catharsis as well as pity and fear and we feel relaxed because this catharsis also works as a medicine. For example; Catharsis is concerned with purification and purgation. Purification has religious connotation whereas purgation has medicine connotation. So, we become one with tragic hero and become relaxed from fear.

·    Hamlet as a tragic hero :

                                             First of all we can put Hamlet into the category of a rather good man – coming to bad end. Hamlet is a rather good man who also fits in the definition of tragic hero by Aristotle. He is the mixture of both, goodness and badness. His goodness is that he has morality and manners and badness is that he has done injustice to Ophelia without any of her faults. He speaks rude words to Ophelia, his mother and his uncle. Though he is not a mad man he pretends to be a mad man.

·    The element of Hamartia in the character of Hamlet :

                                       The only problem with Hamlet is that he can not take conclusion. He wants solution but his own thinking makes him more complicated, confused. His nature of delaying everything sends him to his tragic end. He thinks so much but never puts his principles into practice. So, it is his fatal- flaw. He can not judge Claudius whether he is the murderer of his father or not and for this he organizes a mouse- trap plan and through mouse- trap scene he comes to know that Claudius has killed his father. But to kill his uncle after getting the fact, he can not take any action, and delays the things. So, this is his hamartia. He can not judge his uncle as a murderer first, so it is his error of judgment.

·    Catharsis in Hamlet :

                                                Though Hamlet lives among the crowd, he is all alone, he feels loneliness and we feel pity from his state of mind. And when Hamlet fights with Laeters, during that situation we feel fear for Hamlet.

·        Doctor Faustus as a tragic hero :

                                                 We should put Faustus in the category of a bad man – coming to bad end. Because he wants to become a demi – God and wants to get extreme knowledge, wealth and power like God. We can put Faustus into the term tragic hero; he also has ‘hamartia’ and arouses catharsis. His excessive pride or hubris is his hamartia. He has done many sins from Seven Deadly Sins as Christian theology defines. He has Pride, Wrath, Gluttony of extreme knowledge, then Greed of power and wealth, and the most important thing about his error of judgment is that he can not choose the right path that which is good or which is bad for him.

·      Catharsis in Doctor Faustus :

                                                Only at the end of his life Faustus desires to repent and in the final scene, he cries out to Christ to redeem him. But it is too late for him to repent. We feel pity for Faustus that he is on the verge of death still he can not do anything even repentance also, and fear for his terrible state in last scene that Lucifer comes and drags his soul from his body. So, we have both that emotions of pity and fear, which arouses Catharsis.

·      Oedipus as a tragic hero :

                                                 In the case of Oedipus, not the circumstances but destiny plays very vital role. Oedipus is a rather good man who comes to his bad end. He is a mixture of both good and evil. Good thing is that as a king he is anxious about his people and becomes ready to get rid of Plague at any cost. He wants to do or die in order to save the life of his people. But evil thing is that his destiny has made him a sinner, he gets married with his mother and produces children also. One thing is also that he has hubris or pride and he is rude as well.

·        Catharsis in Oedipus :

                                                The element of Catharsis is there in the play. We feel pity for Oedipus from his very childhood when he was sent to be killed. He gets married with his mother but he is unknown from this fact. So, we feel pity for him and when God Apollo makes a prophesy we feel fear that now what will happen? So, this was about the elements of tragic hero.

·    Conclusion :

                                                  From all elements of tragic hero, we come to the conclusion that tragic hero shows that struggle is inevitable in existence. And we learn from tragic hero that never ends your struggle.

                    

                             The End

            

           

                            Thank You