Hamartia

Antigone, written by Sophocles, is a tragic play that deals with three main ideas which are: whether Polyneices ought to be given burial rituals, whether someone who buried him in defiance of state ought to be punished and whether Creon’s actions are just or thoughtless. Written around 441 BC, the play is known to have been very controversial at the time, not only because of the plot it presented but rather because the themes it dealt with challenged Ancient Greek ideals. However, not all themes…

A tragic hero is defined as a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy. In Yukio Mishima’s The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea, the main protagonist, Ryuji Tsukazaki, proves to be a tragic hero as his internal confliction and the ambiguity of his character served as his fatal flaw which ultimately led him to his death. Ryuji believes that he is destined for glory, even though he does not know…

“The truly tragic kind of suffering is the kind produced and defiantly insisted upon the hero himself so that, instead of making himself better, it makes him worse and when he dies he is not reconciled to the law but defiant…” - W. H. Auden. According to Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, some examples of being a tragic hero can be defined as having a weakness, usually seen in pride, having to be faced with very serious decisions throughout the story, and the hero must have discovered his…

A hero can be defined as someone who possesses upstanding qualities or has accomplished impressive feats. Similarly, a tragic hero in a piece of literature possesses upstanding qualities, yet also has a tragic flaw that eventually leads to his demise. For these reasons, the character John Proctor in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a tragic hero. Due to how John Proctor can be characterized as having goodness and a superior reputation, a tragic flaw, and an epiphany moment, he is the…

The Death Decision of Doctor Faustus Tragedy is a play that shows the downfall of a human with an unhappy ending. Tragedy usually happens to an average man who makes poor decisions in life and ends in pain. In the play of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Faustus’ life is tragic because he is a respected scholar, but he chooses to spend eternity in hell. Marlowe portrays the life of a successful Christian scholar, Doctor Faustus, who manages to receive his doctorate in theology and divinity…

Considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman can be seen as praise to a man who, while trying to bring his family into grace, falls in a tragic life. As Centola (25) says, “Miller’s play tells the story of a man who, on the verge of death, wants desperately to justify his life.” Willy is a complex and fascinating man who gradually destroyed himself with false hopes and beliefs. He is a tragic man who, in his whole life, has believed that he would…

In a View From the Bridge, Miller tries to create a modern age greek tragedy. A greek tragedy is defined as a play in which the protagonist, usually a man of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances which he cannot deal. Miller portrays this through the character of Eddie who is understandably the ‘man of importance’ at least within his household. The character of Eddie also ’falls to disaster’ at the end of…

The definition of a tragedy in Greek writing is “a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character”. Antigone, a play written by Sophocles is a tragedy of wicked justice and brave rebellion, a reflection of the mind. Each character represents a different facet of the human persona. Some hold onto their beliefs with pride and stubbornness that cuts deep within their heart without any consideration of others, some have…

If prophecies were to be real, a person would expect what will happen in the future. This is a world true idea; at least in “Oedipus the King,” a story by Sophocles about the tragic fate of Oedipus the protagonist, that reaches his own doom unwillingly. His destiny stabs him in the back at the end of the story, resulting in him suffering in the dark leaving him with his problems. Destiny is defined as an event that will eventually happen to a specific person in the future. Oedipus’s destiny…

What is a tragic hero? According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a literary, noble character who makes a judgment mistake that eventually leads to his/her downfall. In the book Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is our tragic hero. Okonkwo is considered a tragic hero due to his leadership and eventual nobility, his big reverse as a character, and his tragic flaws that lead to his downfall. First of all, Okonkwo starts off as a poor child as shown when the book states “Okonkwo did not have the start in…