The Aristotelian tragic

hero: Vision, voice, and

the solitary self
Sheila McGarrY. Bruening, Purdue University

Abstract
As opposed to his philosophic predecessor
Plato, who feared the effect poetry could
have on moral education, Aristotle
appreciated the difference between the
Homeric epic hero who grappled with mythic
monsters and the tragic hero who struggled
with the epistemological, ethical, and
existential truth about himself. The present
study investigates the tragic hero, defined in
Aristotle's Poetics as "an intermediate kind of
personage, not pre-eminently virtuous and
just" whose misfortune is attributed, not to
vice or depravity, but an error of judgment.
The hero is fittingly described as good in
spite of an infirmity of character. The aspects
of the hero's character are also seen as
inseparable from the tragic action, which
inseparable from the tragic action, which
processes through the phases of decision,
illumination, and catharsis. The definition of
the hero leads to an examination of the
Nicomachean Ethics in order to discover
exactly what Aristotle means by virtue,
justice, intermediate morality, goodness of
character, and an error of judgment. This
examination determines that, in erring
against the intellectual virtue of judgment by
failing to discriminate the equitable, the
tragic hero at the same time errs against
moral virtue since equity is a form of justice.
Because he departs from the moral mean in
the direction of excess, but does not go the
extreme of vice, he maintains his goodness.
He is, however, guilty of incontinence with
qualification. The final part of this project
establishes Sophocles· King Oedipus as a
tragic hero on the Aristotelian model. The
tragic action of Oedipus the King clearly
follows the pattern of decision, illumination,
and catharsis. Oedipus· error of judgment
leads to incontinence with qualification in
leads to incontinence with qualification in
respect to anger. When he leaves Thebes at
the end of the tragic action of Oedipus the
King, Oedipus sees with a deep inner vision,
speaks with the voice of practical wisdom,
and rightfully claims a solitary self. Plato to
the contrary, Aristotle's point that poetry
does not work at cross-purposes to
philosophy is well taken. Tragic poetry
complements philosophy by showing its inner
face.
What Is a Tragic Hero?
The tragic hero is one of the most
common literary archetypes, having its
roots in Greek drama. Aristotle defines
a tragic hero as a person who commits
errors in judgment, which eventually
leads to his downfall.

This evokes a sense of fear or pity in

the audience, which is necessary for
experiencing catharsis, which is the
process by which someone releases
pent-up emotions thanks to an
encounter with art.

Sometimes, the tragic hero in the story

may not necessarily be a "hero" in the
truest sense. In fact, the tragic hero
can even be the antagonist or villain in
a story.

In the tragic hero, the main character

starts off in the prime of life but
makes decisions that cause them to
makes decisions that cause them to
spiral down, either to destruction or
death.

The destruction may be external, as in

the loss of all his possessions and
family, or internal, such as moral
decay.

What Are the 6 Characteristics of a Tragic

Hero?
Based on the Greek plays, the tragic
hero typically has the following
characteristics:

1. Hubris: excessive pride

An ancient proverb goes, "Pride goes

before a destruction, and haughtiness
before a fall."Excessive pride is a
common trait that tragic heroes have
before their downfall.

For example, in the children's book The

Wind in the Willows, Mr. Toad thinks so
highly of himself, and considers
highly of himself, and considers
himself invincible in his quest for more
adventures with cars. As a result of
this pride, he ends up in trouble with
the law for stealing a car.

2. Hamartia: a tragic error of judgment that

results in the hero's downfall

Sometimes, the tragedies that happen

in the story are a result of natural
circumstances. Other times, they are
direct consequences of the main
character's actions.

For example, in the story of Daniel

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Robinson
ends up in the fateful storm that gets
him shipwrecked because of his own
decision to disobey his father's advice
and go to sea.

3. Peripeteia: the hero's experience of a

reversal of fate due to his error in
judgment

What makes a story compelling is

when the protagonist's choice has
tragic consequences.

For example, in Gone with the Wind,

Scarlett O'Hara starts off with an
innocent ploy to get Ashley's attention
by flirting with all the boys at a
barbecue party. But when Ashley
refuses to break off his engagement to
Melanie, Scarlett wants to get back at
him by marrying Charlie, Melanie's
brother for whom she has no feelings.

This seemingly small decision has

repercussions that affect the overall
trajectory of her life: she becomes a
widow when Charlie dies within a
couple of weeks, leaving her a baby
boy to bring up. But her widowhood
bars her from the life of parties and
dances that she longs so much for,
and gives her an unexpected tie with
Ashle 's wife Melanie as the Civil War
Ashley's wife Melanie as the Civil War
begins.

4. Anagnorisis: the moment in the story

when the hero realizes the cause of his
downfall

Effective stories draw us into the main

character's heart: his motivations,
struggles, and the journey of
transformation they undergo.

In the story of John D. Fitzgerald's The

Great Brain, Tom always makes sure he
gets something better in return for
anything he offers people. Towards the
end, he helps Andy overcome his peg
leg, in exchange of an expensive
erector set.

But when he succeeds getting Andy

accepted among their peers, he
decides not to take the toy, and also
ends up returning things he had
swindled out of his younger brother
JD.
JD.

5. Nemesis: an unavoidable consequence

that usually comes because of the hero's
pride

Sometimes the consequence comes

as a result of the hero's wrong choices;
other times, his pride may be to blame.
The term nemesis is used to refer to
an enemy, but in the case of the tragic
hero, it can refer to his struggle with
his hubris, or excessive pride.

For example, in Oscar Wilde's The

Picture of Dorian Gray, the young
Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with
his own vanity and good looks and
ends up selling his soul to the devil to
retain his youthful appearance.
Instead, we find the portrait of himself
growing old and ugly, a picture of what
is happening inside his heart.

6. Catharsis: the feeling of fear and pity

that the downfall evokes in the audience
hero.

This means that the tragic hero can be

a regular person without anything that
sets them apart. He may even be a
semi-villainous or a villainous person.

Example #1. Prince Hamlet from Hamlet by

William Shakespeare

The prince of Denmark, Hamlet starts

off in the play as having high social
status. But his father's tortured ghost
almost drives Hamlet to madness by
convincing him that Claudius
committed treachery by plotting
Hamlet's father's death.

This leads Hamlet to plan out revenge

on Claudius. Hamlet's hamartia, in the
form of constant brooding and
contemplation, blinds him and causes
him to neglect the other important
people in his life. It eventually causes
a delay that results in his downfall.
a delay t hat results in his downf all.

Example #2. Romeo from Romeo and Juliet

by William Shakespeare

Another example of a tragic hero is

Romeo from Romeo and Juliet. When
the character is introduced, he has a
high social standing. But his falling in
love with Juliet, whose family hates
his family, blinds him to reality: he
believes they are destined to be
together.

Because of the choices they make to

pursue their relationship, Juliet ends
up faking her own death, which Romeo
mistakenly believes to be true.
Because of that, he decides to kill
himself. Here we can see that his
tragic death is a result of his own
choices.

Example #3. Anna from Anna Karenina of

Leo Tolstoy

At the start of the story, Anna Karenina

has everything that any girl would
want: beauty, charm, beautiful
children, and an overall happy life. She
starts off being the person that helps
Dolly forgive her husband for his affair,
helping them keep their marriage
intact.

Another scene portrays Dolly's sister,

Kitty, admiring and envying Anna,
shown in the excerpt below:

Immediately after dinner Kitty came

in. She knew Anna Arkadyevna, but
only very slightly, and she came now
to her sister's with some trepidation,
at the prospect of meeting this
fashionable Petersburg lady, whom
everyone spoke so highly of. But she
made a favorable impression on
Anna Arkadyevna-she saw that at
Anna Arkadyevna-she saw that at
once. Anna was unmistakably
admiring her loveliness and her
youth: before Kitty knew where she
was she found herself not merely
under Annas sway, but in love with
her; as young girls do fall in love with
older and married women. Anna was
not like a fashionable lady, nor the
mother of a boy of eight years old. In
the elasticity of her movements, the
freshness and th,e unflagging
eagerness which persisted in her
face, and broke out in her smile and
her glance, she would rather have
passed for a girl of twenty, had it not
been for a serious and at times
mournful look in her eyes, which
struck and attracted Kitty. Kitty felt
that Anna was perfectly simple and
was concealing nothing, but that she
had another higher world of interests
 inac~essible to her, complex and

I poetic.

But soon, Anna develops her own

affair with Count Vronsky, and from
then on, her life spirals out of control.
It ends with Anna's tragic death at the
railway of a train.

Example #4. Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with

the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Ma RGaREt MitCHELL

.--\.~DME
W itH tHE
\ ,. ·- I-i, Pl n
~canett u Hara rrom uone w1rn rne
Wind is a classic example of a tragic
heroine: she starts off endearing us to
her coyness and innocence as a 16-
year-old girl in the high society South.

But her obsession with childhood

friend Ashley Wilkes leads her to one
wrong choice after another: first, to
marry someone she didn't love, only to
end up widowed; and later, to take care
of Ashley's wife while he went off to
war.

When the war impoverishes Scarlett

and her family, she vows to do
whatever it takes never to be poor
again. This compounds her problems
as she makes one morally
questionable choice after another,
until she could barely feel her
.
conscience.
She contemplates becoming Rhett
Butler's mistress, then marries another
man for his money, and proceeds to
build the life she wants while
simultaneously destroying her family's
reputation.

When her second husband Frank dies,

she marries Rhett, but her continued
devotion to Ashley stands in the way
of their intimacy, which eventually
destroys her marriage.

Towards the end of the book, Scarlett

makes one realization after another.
But it turns out to be too late: the book
does not end in Scarlett's death, but
instead in Rhett giving up on her and
walking out of her life.

Example #5. Jay Gatsby from The Great

Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby enters
the scene as a mysterious millionaire,
with one obsession: to be reunited
with Daisy, the woman he loved before
he left to fight in World War I. Daisy
has since gotten married, but that
doesn't stop Jay from doing whatever
it takes to lure her back.

The story ends in a series of twists

and turns: Jay and Daisy end up
having an affair, but a tragic car
accident that kills another woman
further complicates everything.

Myrtle, the woman killed in the

accident, was the mistress of Daisy's
husband. Although Jay claims
responsibility, Daisy leaves him and
goes back to Tom, and Myrtle's
husband kills Jay.

Significance of a Tragic Hero

Significance of a Tragic Hero
A tragic hero story is one tool that
writers can use to help readers
process the consequences of a
character's choices and actions.

In fact, people might make references

to the characters in these stories to
highlight something that they would
want to avoid.