Tragic Hero - Jack Dawson

Tragic Hero
Jack Dawson – Titanic

Who is Jack Dawson? – Jack Dawson is penniless artist who wins a ticket aboard the luxurious ship Titanic on a lucky hand in poker. As his parents died when he was young, he travels the world, looking for work wherever he can. He boards the Titanic where he falls in love with a girl called Rose after saving her from jumping off the back of the ship. As the journey continues, Jack finds himself in a lot of tough positions caused by his relationship with Rose. Jack narrowly escapes death on multiple occasions, but as the Titanic sinks, Jack makes the decision to save Rose, where his luck sadly runs out.

Hamartia- Jack sees himself as an equal to everyone else, which is shown when he is comfortable enough to sit at the first class table and is able to create a sense that he belongs. He does this while everyone else sees him as inferior. A person not worthy of their presence and in their opinion a gutter rat.

Hubris- Jack Dawson demonstrates extreme pride when he is convinced that Rose will choose him, an artist with nothing to offer but a relationship that has no certainty, over Cal, a man who she is engaged to, with endless amounts of money and who can take away her family's financial problems. He also thinks that he is just as good as anyone else when all the higher classes would beg to differ.

Anagnorisis- Jack thinks that everyone should be treated as an equal, and it doesn’t matter if you are first, second, or third class. Everyone else however, thinks that social class and class discrimination is first and foremost and that it's sometimes more important than the lives of those of a lower status.

Peripeteia- Unlike the Greek version of the tragic hero, the downfall of Jack Dawson is not extreme pride or greed, but Jack’s deep love for Rose. He is so focus on being with Rose, that he didn’t care what the consequences of their love were. This reckless love leads to jacks death.

Nemesis- The nemesis is the ship ‘titanic’ because even if jack didn’t meet rose, the ship would still sink. The fact that he boarded as a third-class member and that there wasn’t enough boats for every person on the ship will have probably killed him also. Pathos- The audience feels pity for Jack on account of people of a higher status thinking that he was worthless and therefore making fun of him. The upper class always thinks that his lifestyle of moving around from country to country looking for work is menial and meaningless. He lost his parents when he was only 15 and from then on his life has been difficult.

Catharsis- when the titanic hit the iceberg and started to sink, jack was on one of the lower levels of the ship because he was accused of stealing the Heart of the Ocean. After Rose had rescued Jack, they try to find their way to the top level of the ship but all the gates to that level had been locked. Rose and Jack franticly try to find another way out. They succeeded but by then all the boats had been filled up with people. They had no other choice but to jump. As they swam away from the sinking ship, they found a door that will only hold up one person. Jack stayed in the water even though he knew that he was going to die if they didn’t get rescued quickly. The audience right now will feel an overwhelming sense of pity because they jumped over so many hurdles to be together and yet its doubtful they ever can be.