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Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 4: Aristotle: The Poetics: Ideal Tragic Hero, Comedy

Unit 4: Aristotle: The Poetics: Ideal Tragic Hero, Comedy Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
4.1 Greek Theory of Tragedy: Aristotle’s Poetics
4.2 Comedy
4.3 The Ideal Tragic Hero

4.4 Summary
4.5 Key-Words
4.6 Review Questions
4.7 Further Readings

Objectives
After reading this Unit students will be able to:

• Discuss Greek Theory of Tragedy.
• Explain the Ideal Tragic Hero.

Introduction

Aristotle established his view of what makes a tragic hero in his Book Poetics. Aristotle suggests
that a hero of a tragedy must evoke in the audience a sense of pity or fear, saying, "the change of
fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity."
He establishes the concept that the emotion of pity stems not from a person becoming better but
when a person receives undeserved misfortune and fear comes when the misfortune befalls a man
like us. This is why Aristotle points out the simple fact that, "The change of fortune should be not
from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad." Aristotle also establishes that the hero has to
be "virtuous" that is to say he has to be "a morally blameless man". The Hero's flaw is what will
bring him success but death by the end of the work.
Aristotle contests that the tragic hero has to be a man "who is not eminently good and just, yet
whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty." He is not
making the hero entirely good in which he can do no wrong but rather has the hero committing
an injury or a great wrong leading to his misfortune. Aristotle is not contradicting himself saying
that the hero has to be virtuous and yet not eminently good. Being eminently good is a moral
specification to the fact that he is virtuous. He still has to be to some degree good. Aristotle adds
another qualification to that of being virtuous but not entirely good when he says, "He must be
one who is highly renowned and prosperous." He goes on to give examples such as Oedipus and
Thyestes."
A tragic hero is the main character (or "protagonist") in a tragedy. Tragic heroes appear in the
dramatic works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Webster,
Marston, Corneille, Racine, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Strindberg, and many other writers.
A tragic hero is one that has one major flaw and the audience usually feels pity.

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