Tragic Hero Definition

What is a tragic hero? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

A tragic hero is a type of character in a tragedy, and is usually
the protagonist. Tragic heroes typically have heroic traits that earn them
the sympathy of the audience, but also have flaws or make mistakes that
ultimately lead to their own downfall. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,
Romeo is a tragic hero. His reckless passion in love, which makes him a
compelling character, also leads directly to the tragedy of his death.
Some additional key details about tragic heroes:

 The idea of the tragic hero was first defined by the

ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle based on his study
of Greek drama.
 Despite the term "tragic hero," it's sometimes the
case that tragic heroes are not really heroes at all in
the typical sense—and in a few
cases, antagonists may even be described as tragic
heroes.

Tragic Hero Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce tragic hero: tra-jik hee-roh

The Evolution of the Tragic Hero

Tragic heroes are the key ingredient that make tragedies, well, tragic.
That said, the idea of the characteristics that make a tragic hero have
changed over time.

Aristotle and the Tragic Hero

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first to define a "tragic
hero." He believed that a good tragedy must evoke feelings of fear and
pity in the audience, since he saw these two emotions as being
fundamental to the experience of catharsis (the process of releasing
strong or pent-up emotions through art). As Aristotle puts it, when the
tragic hero meets his demise, "pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune,
fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves."
Aristotle strictly defined the characteristics that a tragic hero must have in
order to evoke these feelings in an audience. According to Aristotle, a
tragic hero must:
  Be virtuous: In Aristotle's time, this meant that the
character should be a noble. It also meant that the
character should be both capable and powerful (i.e.
"heroic"), and also feel responsible to the rules of
honor and morality that guided Greek culture. These
traits make the hero attractive and compelling, and
gain the audience's sympathy.
 Be flawed: While being heroic, the character must also
have a tragic flaw (also called hamartia) or more
generally be subject to human error, and the flaw
must lead to the character's downfall. On the one
hand, these flaws make the character "relatable,"
someone with whom the audience can identify. Just
as important, the tragic flaw makes the tragedy more
powerful because it means that the source of the
tragedy is internal to the character, not merely some
outside force. In the most successful tragedies, the
tragic hero's flaw is not just a characteristic they have
in addition to their heroic qualities, but one that
emerges from their heroic qualities—for instance, a
righteous quest for justice or truth that leads to
terrible conclusions, or hubris (the arrogance that
often accompanies greatness). In such cases, it is as
if the character is fated to destruction by his or her
own nature.
 Suffer a reversal of fortune: The character should suffer
a terrible reversal of fortune, from good to bad. Such
a reversal does not merely mean a loss of money or
status. It means that the work should end with the
character dead or in immense suffering, and to a
degree that outweighs what it seems like the
character deserved.
To sum up: Aristotle defined a tragic hero rather strictly as a man of
noble birth with heroic qualities whose fortunes change due to a tragic
flaw or mistake (often emerging from the character's own heroic qualities)
that ultimately brings about the tragic hero's terrible, excessive downfall.

The Modern Tragic Hero

Over time, the definition of a tragic hero has relaxed considerably. It can
now include

 Characters of all genders and class backgrounds. Tragic

heroes no longer have to be only nobles, or only men.
 Characters who don't fit the conventional definition of a
hero. This might mean that a tragic hero could be
 regular person who lacks typical heroic qualities, or
perhaps even a villainous or or semi-villainous
person.
Nevertheless, the essence of a tragic hero in modern times maintains two
key aspects from Aristotle's day:

 The tragic hero must have the sympathy of the

audience.
 The tragic hero must, despite their best efforts or
intentions, come to ruin because of some tragic flaw
in their own character.

Tragic Hero, Antihero, and Byronic Hero

There are two terms that are often confused with tragic hero: antihero
and Byronic hero.

 Antihero: An antihero is a protagonist who lacks many

of the conventional qualities associated with heroes,
such as courage, honesty, and integrity, but still has
the audience's sympathy. An antihero may do the
right thing for the wrong reason. Clint Eastwood's
character in the western film, The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly, is fundamentally selfish. He digs up graves
to look for gold and kills anyone who gets in his way,
so he's definitely a bad guy. But as an antihero, he's
not completely rotten: he also shows a little sympathy
for dying soldiers in the bloody war going on around
him, and at the end of the film he acts mercifully in
choosing not to kill a man who previously tried to kill
him. He does a few good things, but only as long as it
suits him—so he's a classic antihero.
 Byronic hero: A Byronic hero is a variant of the
antihero. Named after the characters in the poetry of
Lord Byron, the Byronic hero is usually a man who is
an intelligent, emotionally sensitive, introspective,
and cynical character. While Byronic heroes tend to
be very charismatic, they're deeply flawed individuals,
who might do things that are generally thought of as
socially unacceptable because they are at odds with
mainstream society. A Byronic hero has his own set of
beliefs and will not yield for anyone. While it might
not be initially apparent, deep down, the Byronic hero
is also quite selfish.
According to the modern conception of a tragic hero, both an antihero and
a Byronic hero could also be tragic heroes. But in order for a tragic hero
to exist, he or she has to be part of a tragedy with a story that ends in
death or ruin. Antiheroes and Byronic heroes can exist in all sorts of
different genres, however, not just tragedies. An antihero in an action
movie—for instance Deadpool, in the first Deadpool movie—is not a tragic
hero because his story ends generally happily. But you could argue that
Macbeth is a kind of antihero (or at least an initial hero who over time
becomes an antihero), and he is very definitely also a tragic hero.

Tragic Hero Examples

Tragic Heroes in Drama
The tragic hero originated in ancient Greek theater, and can still be seen
in contemporary tragedies. Even though the definition has expanded since
Aristotle first defined the archetype, the tragic hero's defining
characteristics have remained—for example, eliciting sympathy from the
audience, and bringing about their own downfall.

Oedipus as Tragic Hero in Oedipus Rex

The most common tragic flaw (or hamartia) for a tragic hero to have
is hubris, or excessive pride and self-confidence. Sophocles' tragic
play Oedipus Rex contains what is perhaps the most well-known example
of Aristotle's definition of the tragic hero—and it's also a good example of
hubris. The play centers around King Oedipus, who seeks to rid the city
he leads of a terrible plague. At the start of the play, Oedipus is told by a
prophet that the only way to banish the plague is to punish the man who
killed the previous king, Laius. But the same prophet also reports that
Oedipus has murdered his own father and married his mother. Oedipus
refuses to believe the second half of the prophecy—the part pertaining to
him—but nonetheless sets out to find and punish Laius's murderer.
Eventually, Oedipus discovers that Laius had been his father, and that he
had, in fact, unwittingly killed him years earlier, and that the fateful event
had led directly to him marrying his own mother. Consequently, Oedipus
learns that he himself is the cause of the plague, and upon realizing all
this he gouges his eyes out in misery (his wife/mother also kills herself).
Oedipus has all the important features of a classical tragic hero.
Throughout the drama, he tries to do what is right and just, but because
of his tragic flaw (hubris) he believes he can avoid the fate given to him
by the prophet, and as a result he brings about his own downfall.

Willy Loman as Tragic Hero in Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller wrote his play Death of a Salesman with the intent of
creating a tragedy about a man who was not a noble or powerful man,
but rather a regular working person, a salesman.
The protagonist of Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, desperately tries to
provide for his family and maintain his pride. Willy has high expectations
for himself and for his children. He wants the American Dream, which for
him means financial prosperity, happiness, and good social standing. Yet
as he ages he finds himself having to struggle to hold onto the traveling
salesman job at the company to which he has devoted himself for
decades. Meanwhile, the prospects for his sons, Biff and Happy, who
seemed in high school to have held such promise, have similarly fizzled.
Willy cannot let go of his idea of the American Dream nor his connected
belief that he must as an American man be a good provider for his family.
Ultimately, this leads him to see himself as more valuable dead than
alive, and he commits suicide so his family can get the insurance money.
Willy is a modern tragic hero. He's a good person who means well, but
he's also deeply flawed, and his obsession with a certain idea of success,
as well as his determination to provide for his family, ultimately lead to
his tragic death.

Tragic Heroes in Literature

Tragic heroes appear all over important literary works. With time,
Aristotle's strict definition for what makes a tragic hero has changed, but
the tragic hero's fundamental ability to elicit sympathy from an audience
has remained.

Jay Gatsby as Tragic Hero in The Great Gatsby

The protagonist of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, is Jay Gatsby, a
young and mysterious millionaire who longs to reunite with a woman
whom he loved when he was a young man before leaving to fight in World
War I. This woman, Daisy, is married, however, to a man named Tom
Buchanan from a wealthy old money family. Gatsby organizes his entire
life around regaining Daisy: he makes himself rich (through dubious
means), he rents a house directly across a bay from hers, he throws
lavish parties in the hopes that she will come. The two finally meet again
and do begin an affair, but the affair ends in disaster—with Gatsby taking
responsibility for driving a car that Daisy was in fact driving when she
accidentally hit and killed Tom's mistress (named Myrtle), Daisy
abandoning Gatsby and returning to Tom, and Gatsby getting killed by
Myrtle's husband.
Gatsby's downfall is his unrelenting pursuit of a certain ideal—the
American Dream—and a specific woman who he thinks fits within this
dream. His blind determination makes him unable to see both that Daisy
doesn't fit the ideal and that the ideal itself is unachievable. As a result he
endangers himself to protect someone who likely wouldn't do the same in
return. Gatsby is not a conventional hero (it's strongly implied that he
made his money through gambling and other underworld activities), but
for the most part his intentions are noble: he seeks love and self-
fulfillment, and he doesn't intend to hurt anyone. So, Gatsby would be a
modernized version of Aristotle's tragic hero—he still elicits the audience's
sympathy—even if he is a slightly more flawed version of the archetype.

Javert as Tragic Hero in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables

Javert is a police detective, obsessed with law and order, and Les
Misérables' primary antagonist. The novel contains various subplots but
for the most part follows a character named Jean Valjean, a good and
moral person who cannot escape his past as an ex-convict. (He originally
goes to prison for stealing a loaf of bread to help feed his sister's seven
children.) After Valjean escapes from prison, he changes his name and
ends up leading a moral and prosperous life, becoming well-known for the
ways in which he helps the poor.
Javert, known for his absolute respect for authority and the law, spends
many years trying to find the escaped convict and return him to prison.
After Javert's lifelong pursuit leads him to Valjean, though, Valjean ends
up saving Javert's life. Javert, in turn, finds himself unable to arrest the
man who showed him such mercy, but also cannot give up his devotion to
justice and the law. In despair, he commits suicide. In other words:
Javert's strength and righteous morality lead him to his destruction.
While Javert fits the model of a tragic hero in many ways, he's an
unconventional tragic hero because he's an antagonist rather than the
protagonist of the novel (Valjean is the protagonist). One might then
argue that Javert is a "tragic figure" or "tragic character" rather than a
"tragic hero" because he's not actually the "hero" of the novel at all. He's
a useful example, though, because he shows just how flexible the idea of
a "tragic hero" can be, and how writers play with those ideas to create
new sorts of characters.

Additional Examples of Tragic Heroes

 Macbeth: In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the main
character Macbeth allows his (and his wife's) ambition
to push him to murder his king in order to fulfill a
prophecy and become king himself. Macbeth commits
his murder early in the play, and from then on his
actions become bloodier and bloodier, and he
becomes more a villain than a hero. Nonetheless, he
ends in death, with his wife also dead, and fully
realizing the emptiness of his life. Macbeth is a tragic
hero, but the play is interesting in that his fatal flaw
 or mistake occurs relatively early in the play, and the
rest of the play shows his decline into tragedy even as
he initially seems to get what he seeks (the throne).
 Michael Corleone: The main character of
the Godfather films, Michael Corleone can be said to
experience a tragic arc over the course of the
three Godfather movies. Ambition and family loyalty
push him to take over his mafia family when he had
originally been molded by his father to instead "go
clean." Michael's devotion to his family then leads him
to murder his enemies, kills his betraying brother,
and indirectly leads to the deaths of essentially all of
his loved ones. He dies, alone, thinking of his lost
loves, a tragic antihero.
 Okonkwo: In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart,
Okonkwo is a man of great strength and will, and
these heroic traits make him powerful and wealthy in
his tribe. But his devotion to always appearing strong
and powerful also lead him to alienate his son, break
tribal tradition in a way that leads to his exile from
the tribe, and to directly confront white missionaries
in a way that ultimately leads him to commit suicide.
Okonkwo's devotion to strength and power leads to
his own destruction.
 Anakin Skywalker: The three prequel Star Wars movies
(episodes I, II, and III) can be seen as an attempt to
frame Anakin Skywalker into a tragic hero. Anakin is
both powerful in the force and a prophesied "chosen
one," but his ambition and desire for order and
control lead him to abandon and kill fellow Jedi,
inadvertently kill his own wife, and to join the dark
side of the force and become a kind of enforcer for
the Emperor. Anakin, as Darth Vader, is alone and full
of such shame and self-hatred that he can see no
other option but to continue on his path of evil. This
makes him a tragic hero. Having said all that, some
would argue that the first three Star Warsmovies
aren't well written or well acted enough to truly make
Anakin a tragic hero (does Anakin really ever have
the audience's sympathy given his bratty whininess?),
but it's clear that he was meant to be a tragic hero.

What's the Function of a Tragic Hero

in Literature?
Above all, tragic heroes put the tragedy in tragedies—it is the tragic
hero's downfall that emotionally engages the audience or reader and
invokes their pity and fear. Writers therefore use tragic heroes for many
of the same reasons they write tragedies—to illustrate a moral
conundrum with depth, emotion, and complexity.
Besides this, tragic heroes serve many functions in the stories in which
they appear. Their tragic flaws make them more relatable to an audience,
especially as compared to a more conventional hero, who might appear
too perfect to actually resemble real people or draw an emotional
response from the audience. Aristotle believed that by watching a tragic
hero's downfall, an audience would become wiser when making choices in
their own lives. Furthermore, tragic heroes can illustrate moral ambiguity,
since a seemingly desirable trait (such as innocence or ambition) can
suddenly become a character's greatest weakness, bringing about grave
misfortune or even death.