The Fate of Tragic Heroes in Literature
Tragic Heroes Essay
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F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.” The quote is relevant to mankind because it shows that everyone has faults. Aristotle enjoyed writing about people with these faults and created the idea of a tragic hero. The characters must complete four phases to be considered a tragic hero. They must start off in an envied position with wealth or power. These characters are also cursed with a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall. The tragic hero must then fall from grace because of the flaw and eventually recognize that they caused their own suffering, catharsis. All these traits are seen in Marcus Junius Brutus, Okonkwo, and
Jay Gatsby, making them true tragic heroes. These characters also share many similar traits, trials, and temperaments. We will start off by talking about one of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes
Marcus Junius Brutus, also called Brutus by his friends.
At the beginning of Julius Caesar, Brutus is a respected man, whose family was tasked with removing the king of Rome from power a few years ago. Brutus is now a senator in Rome and Julius Caesar’s best friend. Brutus strives to live up to his family’s honorable name. He does everything in his power to be seen as respectable. Brutus’s tragic flaw is being too trusting.
Trusting is not necessarily a bad thing, but being too trusting, like Brutus, can lead to one’s downfall. Brutus thoroughly believed that Antony would not speak against him and the other conspirators. Granted, Antony did not come out and directly blame the conspirators, but he did subtly infer they were to blame and swayed the romans against them. Brutus was naïve in letting
Antony speak last and made an ignorant mistake to leave the pulpit before Antony begun speaking. Brutus also trusted Cassius excessively. Cassius took advantage of Brutus’s trust and used him to get close to Caesar. Cassius also used Brutus’s reputation to make Caesar’s murder
!
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F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.” The quote is relevant to mankind because it shows that everyone has faults. Aristotle enjoyed writing about people with these faults and created the idea of a tragic hero. The characters must complete four phases to be considered a tragic hero. They must start off in an envied position with wealth or power. These characters are also cursed with a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall. The tragic hero must then fall from grace because of the flaw and eventually recognize that they caused their own suffering, catharsis. All these traits are seen in Marcus Junius Brutus, Okonkwo, and
Jay Gatsby, making them true tragic heroes. These characters also share many similar traits, trials, and temperaments. We will start off by talking about one of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes
Marcus Junius Brutus, also called Brutus by his friends.
At the beginning of Julius Caesar, Brutus is a respected man, whose family was tasked with removing the king of Rome from power a few years ago. Brutus is now a senator in Rome and Julius Caesar’s best friend. Brutus strives to live up to his family’s honorable name. He does everything in his power to be seen as respectable. Brutus’s tragic flaw is being too trusting.
Trusting is not necessarily a bad thing, but being too trusting, like Brutus, can lead to one’s downfall. Brutus thoroughly believed that Antony would not speak against him and the other conspirators. Granted, Antony did not come out and directly blame the conspirators, but he did subtly infer they were to blame and swayed the romans against them. Brutus was naïve in letting
Antony speak last and made an ignorant mistake to leave the pulpit before Antony begun speaking. Brutus also trusted Cassius excessively. Cassius took advantage of Brutus’s trust and used him to get close to Caesar. Cassius also used Brutus’s reputation to make Caesar’s murder