Why the Tragic hero suddenly? It’s been in my head for a while but haven’t been able to nail down why is it moving me to write. Anyways, the scope arose when a fellow human, with whom I played alter ego sometime in life, brought this up.
His take was how the Greek civilization defined things in life for us. And one of the most amazing of them is the tragic hero. And the evening was spent talking about traits of the tragic hero and contextualizing the aspect of the character in our lives.
I went back to basics, before the Greek, my tragic heroes emerged from English Literature, the one and only Shakespeare. Hamlet rules the roost and each of his plays have the main characters that are tragic heroes or have elements of the character. The quest however is to unearth how so called mundane characters like me and the alter ego and a few people I know are modern day tragic heroes. (And here I would want to keep away from the gender aspect of it).
The typical traits of a tragic hero – from some ref when I googled it
1) Goodness, (2) appropriateness, (3) likeness, and (4) consistency. Moreover, (5) though the tragic hero intends good, (6) because of his or her tragic flaw, (7) he or she experiences a reversal of fortune, (8) which leads to his or her downfall, (9) an experience that causes him or her to have some kind of enlightenment, or to gain some kind of new wisdom or self-knowledge. And overall, (10) the experiences and suffering of the tragic hero are cathartic for the audience.
So when I am analyzing the modern day tragic hero, though one would like to romanticize about it, but gone are the days when we could be selfless, for the larger objective, well being of an empire, a race, or of loved ones. All of this hardly would be reasons to navigate the modern hero’s tragic flaw.
The tragic flaw is often rationalized in the minds of modern day tragic hero. But the catharsis leads to self pity. And that often comes out to be epitome of realization. They say tragic heroes are faced with serious decision, in retrospect personally the decision and dilemma is self inflicted. At the same time one would also realize that for some people the everlasting dilemma is a way of life. If that gets lost the quest seems to have gotten lost. Some struggle is necessary for tragic heroes!
Unlike the classic tragic hero, such as Odysseus from Homer's The Odyssey, the modern tragic hero is usually an ordinary man who possesses qualities that elevates him above the ordinary masses as he fights courageously against the overwhelming odds of the society. Accordingly, Atticus Finch, of Harper Lee’s work of To Kill a Mockingbird, are examples of such tragic heroes.
Today I was being the tragic hero when I was trying to conclude on the debate of Harry Potter being the tragic hero or would it be Snape. The checklist had its own set of answers of how the characters are set for the novels to develop a certain feel and storyline, however Harry was not a tragic hero, he was trapped in circumstances and then emerged a hero, almost every time in Hogwarts however Snape was the real tragic hero, not because the catharsis hits him at the end but how he for the intent, reverses his own fortune and for the larger good of lives of promises of tomorrow, and that takes his life. So is Jack Dawson from Titanic, his giving away of his life was for his love, a fit to the t example, his struggle wasn’t that intense however.
And now my most favorite, The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight is, structurally speaking, a dramatically different sort of story. It's not simply that the characters themselves are more complex. Christopher Nolan goes deeper and brings out the stark difference, the nature of the conflict itself. Now, at the beginning of the film, Batman is all out to get Harvey Dent, as a DA, and accomplish what Batman cannot—to ultimately reconcile justice and law in Gotham City. If this could be made possible then Bruce Wayne could stop being Batman. The relationship therefore is something Wayne clearly wants, that clarifies his intent—he thinks if he is able to give up Batman, he 'gets the girl', a "normal life". When Rachel dies, Bruce loses everything, the woman he loves and his hope for Gotham. When Dent becomes Two-Face, he gives up both justice and law for the sake of revenge. Thus the reversal of fortune. Thus the way Batman begins as a superhero, in Dark Knight the way it ends, Batman is no longer a symbol of hope. Inspector Gordon's statement that "The Joker won" has a double meaning. Batman takes the blame because he wants the reconciliation of justice and law, hope, and he realizes that Batman cannot be that hope. Batman operates outside of the law for the sake of justice, but at the same time needs the law to avoid being out for revenge. In this way, Batman's task is shown to be an impossible one. Batman must fight but can never win. He is thus a tragic hero, a "dark knight" as rightly as the film is names.
As far as people in reality are concerned and they exist in flesh and blood Many characters of National Geographic Channels celebrated tv show
Jailed Abroad have been tragic heroes and oofh what heroes! Revolutions have had the ability to create modern day tragic hero, right from unsung heroes of wars remembered in history to modern day struggles of arms movement and the politics around it.
A thinking individual who questions his situation, society, environment and falls into its complex mesh of weird calculations, sometimes succeeds in providing solutions or atleast attempts to fight it are modern day tragic heroes, lets says a
Martha Stewart or a
Michael Vick or right at home our soldiers who fought several battles at the LOC, though as I write here I feel the lines are blurring between a tragic hero and a martyr.
Coming down to what prompted me to write this was to draw references of real life characters. I think we all become tragic heroes, sometime or the other however some of us naturally have the tragic flaw, and some since they have been educated to the phenomenon of philosophy and literature grab their attempt of self pity as being the tragic hero and the victim of all wrongs, right from time to sex to drunken driving to sheer stupid behavior or social conduct. They are friends so beyond a point the crudest thing one does is abandon them.
But ya Hamlet still stirs my heart and The Dark Knight kisses the soul. The Tragic hero is kinda romantic
