Michael Jackson Tragic Hero Essay

The Greek philosopher Aristotle defines a tragic hero as “a person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment and brings his downfall to evoke the feelings of pity and fear among the audience.” Michael Jackson fits that category as he was a young man who was born with incredible talent and promise, and achieved unimaginable success early in his life. Michael was a boy with a predicted glorious future, but instead has lived a life full of even more strange and tragic events. Marcia Sirota, the author of the article, “Michael Jackson, Tragic Hero,” strongly argues that Michael Jackson should be known as “The tragic hero of our time.” Although he composed amazing music, his destruction was through the dramatic and tragic events he did.

Michael Jackson created his own tragic life style that eventually lead him to his destruction, but the
Michael defines what a tragic hero is, as he was obsessed with his self image and kept trying to make himself look better. As stated, “A tragic flaw is one of the most defining parts of a tragic hero and Michael Jackson had many. But his biggest tragic flaw was that he was obsessed with his personal image yet he was unable to accept himself (Will Metzler, Prezi).” His insecurities was his biggest flaw he had, and that alone made a big impact on his life. A tragic hero does not have a happy ending, such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and so on. At the end Macbeth gets beheaded by Macduff and Lady Macbeth dies from the guilt that was inside her. Also, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo drinks poison when he sees Juliet asleep, and Juliet stabs herself, because she thought she was nothing without Romeo. Many think that Michael Jackson is a tragic hero, some not so much, but his untimely death proves how he was a tragic