WEEK 9 BBL 3208

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WEEK 9BBL 3208

• TRAGIC HERO IN SHAKESPEARE'S WRITING

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Shakespearean Tragedy
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Roots of Tragedy
Aristotles Poetics (350 B.C.) laid the
groundwork for the study of Greek tragedy. The
Poetics drew from Greek tragedians such as
Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, and poets
such as Homer. Roman statesman, philosopher, and
dramatist Seneca (4 B.C.-65 A.D.) developed the
five-act form that became standard during the
Renaissance. He also popularized the use of
asides and soliloquies. In the Middle Ages,
tragedy was associated with the downfall of
eminent people through the turning of Fortune's
wheel their fall shows the caprice of Fortune
and the folly of placing trust in worldly goods
rather than God's will.
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Renaissance tragedy, such as Marlowe's
Tamburlaine, drew on Seneca. These in turn gave
rise to Marlowe's Dr. Faustus Shakespeares
Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear. All of
these plays dramatize the conflicts of kings,
conquerors, and geniuses. Renaissance tragedy
in England was much more flexible than Greek
tragedy, often adding comic elements, and in the
attributes of the tragic hero. English dramatists
and their audiences were fascinated by
sympathetic or admirable villains (contrary to
Aristotelian principles of tragedy).
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What Defines Shakespearean
Tragedy?   ?A Tragic Hero  ? The Tragic
Flaw-Hamartia ? Reversal of Fortune ?
Catharsis ? Restoration of Social Order-
Denouement
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The Tragic Hero

• A tragic hero meets his or her downfall through a
  combination of hubris, tragic flaw, fate, and the
  will of the gods.
• Hubris, in modern terms, is exaggerated self
  pride or self-confidence, often resulting in
  fatal retribution.
• Tragic flaw (hamartia) includes accidents and
  mistakes, wrongdoing, error, or sin.
• The tragic hero should be of noble birtha
  ranking politician, military figure, prince,
  king, etc. This produces the feeling of fear if
  it can happen to someone of noble birth, it can
  happen to us.
• The hero should not be morally better than an
  average person. This produces "fear" because the
  hero is imperfect like us, and we can identify
  with him. It also produces "pity" because if the
  hero were perfect or totally good, we would be
  outraged by his fate.  If he were completely
  evil, we would feel like he had gotten what he
  deserved

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• This model of a hero may not always be a good
  guy.
• The tragic hero has made its way into more
  contemporary literature because audiences can
  relate to them.
• A tragic hero follows a twelve step pattern. 

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Tragic Hero Pattern

• Step 1 A protagonist of high estate
•  Step 2 A tragic flaw in character 
• Step 3 Intrusion of time, sense or urgency
•  Step 4 Misreading/Rationalizations
• Step 5 Murder, exile, alienation of enemies and
  allies
• Step 6 Gradual isolation of Tragic Hero

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• Step 7 Mobilization of opposition 
• Step 8 Recognition of tragic flaw, too late
• Step 9 Last courageous attempt to restore
  greatness. 
• Step 10 Audience recognizes potential for
  greatness. 
• Step 11 Death of tragic hero.
• Step 12 Restoration of order.    

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Reversal of Fortune 

• The fatal flaw brings the hero down from
  his/her elevated state.
• Renaissance audiences were familiar with the
  wheel of fortune or fickle fate.
• What goes up, must come down.

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Catharsis

• We get the word catharsis from Aristotles
  katharsis.
• Catharsis is the audiences purging of emotions
  through pity and fear.
• The spectator is purged as a result of watching
  the hero fall.
• This is why we cry during movies!

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Restoration of Social Order

• Tragedies include a private and a public element
• The play cannot end until society is, once again,
  at peace.
• This is why the Tragic Hero often dies

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Shakespearean Tragedy

• Whether or not he was aware of Aristotle,
  Shakespeares tragedies generally adhere to the
  philosophers mold for good tragedy.
• Free will is important in Shakespearean tragedy.
  Characters have the ability to choose their path
  but make errors in choices due to their flawed
  nature. They are usually more directly
  responsible for the downfall than an Aristotelian
  hero would be.

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Critical Views on Shakespearean Tragedy

• In Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), the Victorian
  critic A. C. Bradley divided tragedy into
• 1) Exposition of the situation
• 2) Beginning and growth of the conflict
• 3) Catastrophe or tragic outcome
• The heros tragic flaw is a mistake in action or
  omission. This error, along with other causes,
  brings the heros ruin. Shakespeare's characters
  bring their fates upon themselves and, in a
  sense, deserve what they get. Some of
  Shakespeare's plays (e.g. King Lear) are tragic
  simply because the hero suffers more than he or
  she should due to his or her actions.

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• In The Anatomy of Criticism (1957) Northrop Frye
  noted five stages of action in tragedy
• 1) Encroachment.
• 2) Complication
• 3) Reversal
• 4) Catastrophe
• 5) Recognition

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1) Encroachment. 

• Protagonist takes on too much, makes a mistake
  that causes his/her "fall."  This mistake is
  often unconscious (an act blindly done, through
  over-confidence in one's ability to regulate the
  world or through insensitivity to others) but
  still violates the norms of human conduct. 

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Complication. 

• The building up of events aligning opposing
  forces that will lead inexorably to the tragic
  conclusion.  "Just as comedy often sets up an
  arbitrary law and then organizes the action to
  break or evade it, so tragedy presents the
  reverse theme of narrowing a comparatively free
  life into a process of causation." 

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3) Reversal.

• The point at which it becomes clear that the
  hero's expectations are mistaken, that his fate
  will be the reverse of what he had hoped.  At
  this moment, the vision of the dramatist and the
  audience are the same. 
• The classic example is Oedipus, who seeks the
  knowledge that proves him guilty of murdering his
  father and marrying his mother when he
  accomplishes his objective, he realizes he has
  destroyed himself in the process.  

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4) Catastrophe.

• The catastrophe exposes the limits of the hero's
  power and dramatizes the waste of his life. 
  Piles of dead bodies remind us that the forces
  unleashed are not easily contained there are
  also elaborate subplots (e.g. Gloucester in King
  Lear) which reinforce the impression of a world
  inundated with evil.

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5) Recognition. 

• The audience (sometimes the hero as well)
  recognizes the larger pattern.  If the hero does
  experience recognition, he assumes the vision of
  his life held by the dramatist and the audience. 
  From this new perspective he can see the irony of
  his actions, adding to the poignancy of the
  tragic events.

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Shakespearean Tragedy

• Like Aristotle, Shakespeare felt that men of rank
  (higher individuals) held the potential for the
  greatest tragedies.
• Abnormal conditionswar, mutiny, feuds, etc.
• Supernatural elementsghosts, omens, witches,
  soothsayers, prophecies, etc.
• Chanceoften linked to the characters tragic
  flaw (i.e., allows the flaw to affect the
  situation and cause the downfall).

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What Defines Shakespearean Tragedy?  

• A Tragic Hero 
• The Tragic Flaw-Hamartia
• Reversal of Fortune
• Catharsis
• Restoration of Social Order Denouement