Name:  Ankita Vadher.

Paper No:  103- Literary Theory and Criticism: Western 1

Topic: Aristotle’s Tragic Hero.

Sem-1, M.A-2.

Roll No: 17,

 Year: 2012-13.

Submitted To,

Dr. Dillip Barad,

Dept. of. English,

M.K.Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

Aristotle’s Tragic Hero.

v The Definition of Tragedy:

“Aristotle Defines tragedy as the imitation of an action serious complete and of a certain parts with different kinds of embellishment, through action and not narrative, and through scene of pity and fear about the ‘catharsis’ of these emotions.”

          This definition has wide implications. It falls naturally in to two parts the first part from ‘the imitation of an action”, to and not Narration”, is concerned with tragedy as one of the imitative arts and point out its medium objects and manner of imitation and emotional effects of tragedy.

v The ideal tragic hero:

Consideration of the ideal tragic hero Aristotle lays down that he should neither be perfectly good not utterly bad. He should be a man neither of a blameless character nor a depraved villain. He is a man of ordinary weaknesses and virtues like us learning more to the side of good than of evil. Occupying positions of eminence and falling in to ruin from that eminence. Not because of any deliberate wackiness, but because of some error of judgment on his part. Aristotle also says that man whose action and experiences poetry imitates may be either better or worse or the same as they are in actual life. Aristotle mentions and then ignores he is wholly concerned with the other two. The poet may represent men as heroic or exaggerate their follies and weaknesses. He may idealises or he may caricature. And this is the difference between tragedy and comedy. Tragedy idealises imitates men as better and comedy caricatures. Tragedy idealises and brings out the hidden possibilities embedded in men. The character in a tragedy are real men and women but they are of the better sort and farther by judicious processes of selection and elimination, the reality is heightened and the good in them is made more prominent and impressive. A skillful paint from reality but the object painted is made to look more beautiful than the original. It is still reality but reality idealized.

v Hamartia:

Hamartia is a word which admits of various shades of meaning and hence it has been differently interpreted by different critics. The tragic hero is not depraved or vicious but he is also not perfect and his misfortune is brought upon him by some fault of his own. The Greek word used here is Hamartia is “missing the mark”. He falls not because of the act of some outside agency or vice or depravity but because of Hamartia or miscalculation on his part. Hamartia is not a moral falling and hence it is unfortunate that it has been translated rather loosely as “tragic flaw” as has been done by Bradley. Aristotle himself distinguishes Hamartia from moral falling and makes it quite clear that he means by it some error of judgment. He writes that the cause of the hero’s fall must lie, not in depravity. But in some error or Hamartia on his part”.

v Its three sources:

This Hamartia is an error miscalculation. But the error may arise in three ways. It may arise from ‘ignorance of some material fact or circumstance’, or secondly, it may be an error arising from hasty or careless view of the special case or thirdly it may be an error voluntary but not deliberate as in the case of act committed in anger or passion. Hamartia is an error or a series of errors ‘whether morally culpable or not committed by an otherwise noble person and these errors derive him to his doom. The tragic lies in the fact that hero may err innocently, unknowingly without any evil intention at all, yet he is doomed. No less than those who are depraved and sin consciously.

 

v Tragic Hero:

John is misfit in both the worlds. Neither worlds accepts him each gives him sordid pain. There is no relief as he tries to find solace, pain and come only. His childhood is rough and his bringing up by Linda isn't praise worthy. He is deprived of dull sorts of love of mother, father, a women kiakime or lenina or society rejection too tears him whether of manhood, sacrifice or of love and it deepens his pathetic condition. In new world, more disgusting experiences are found. He is horrified. He finds his place nowhere he wishes to go somewhere and find solitude and purify himself. In loneliness he undergoes suffering through whipping himself and tries to forget unhappy memories regarding lenina  It was sensuality to be removed. But his solitude is found out and laughed at by the new world. People come to see him. Lenina too comes to the place but john lashes her next evening john commits suicide he hanged himself under the crown of the arch in the light house. He sacrifices himself but it is altogether different to Jesus. His death is sordid and prosaic. He had dreamed to sacrifice like Jesus. But it isn't realized. He isn't accepted by the old or new world. Perhaps his failure is the failure of religion and proves monds argument right that is absence of god. On the top of mesa Bernard and lenina had seen skeleton. At the end of the novel light house is shown. Thus there is deep relationship of geographical details related to john as well.

Ø Some more example of tragic hero:

v Macbeth as a tragic hero:

The character of Macbeth is a classic example of a Shakespearean tragic hero. There are many factors which three will be discussed. The three points which contribute greatly to Macbeth’s degeneration are the prophecy which was told to him by the witches, how Lady Macbeth influenced and manipulated Macbeth’s judgment, the finally Macbeth’s long time ambition which drove his desire to be king. Macbeth’s growing character degenerates from a noble man to violent individual. The prophecies which were told by the witches were one of the factors which contributed to the degeneration of his character. As a result of the prophesies, this aroused Macbeth’s curiosity of how he could be king of Scotland. As the play progresses, Macbeth slowly relies on the witches prophecies. Shakespeare uses the witches as a remedy for Macbeth’s curiosity which corrupts his character. The influence of Macbeth’s wife lady Macbeth also contributed to his degeneration of character. Lady Macbeth’s character in the beginning reveals that she is a lovable person. When Lady Macbeth was ready to kill King Duncan herself, it showed that lady Macbeth could not murder King Duncan because he reminded her of her father. This proves that lady Macbeth has a heart deep inside her. Lady Macbeth plays because she provided a scheme which caused Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan. After Macbeth had killed King Duncan, he later regrets on his wrong doing. At the point of this play the audience can note the change in Macbeth’s character Macbeth’s first murder was a trying experience for him however after the first murder, killing seemed to be the only solution to maintain his region of the people of Scotland therefore it was Lady Macbeth who introduced the concept of murder to Macbeth. Macbeth’s ambition had not been strong enough to carry the motive to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s influence also comes in to play because if not for lady Macbeth, his ambition would not have been intensified enough to drive him to obtain and maintain his title of king of Scotland no matter what it took even if it Macbeth murdering. Macbeth’s ambition influenced the cause of his new character. This new character of Macbeth contained greed, violence and power hunger. Macbeth shows this when he kills King Duncan.

Ø Conclusion:

The prophecies given to him by the witches, Lady Macbeth’s influence and plan and his intensified ambition all, contribution greatly to his degeneration of character which resulted to his downfall death. Therefore Macbeth character displays strong signs of a tragic hero, making him the ideal classic example.

v In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”

Hamlet is a prime example of tragic hero. First of all, hamlet is the prince of Denmark which clearly shows his nobility in society. He is an intelligent man who, because of too much thinking. Rationally, does not fully achieve what he desired in the end one of his goals he succeeded in was to claim revenge for his father’s death by slaying Claudius, but he did it too late. His ration thinking made him verifies the ghost’s information, as well as fails to murder Claudius because he believes he was praying. The delay in his action was his Hamartia in turn led to hamlet’s downfall where because of his powerlessness to act everything he loved was destroyed. Hamlet realized his flaw in act five, scene two when he is speaking with Horatio before he accepts the challenge to sword- fight against Leartes. Here hamlet does not care if he dies because he now accepts fate’s duty.