Aristotle was one of the greatest Greek philosophers. He wrote on many areas including, meteorology, climate, biology, animal anatomy, psychology and ethics. His philosophical works focused on logic and the use of inference and deduction. He also wrote a number of works on the arts including the structure of the Greek Play. For the ancient Greeks, the tragic play was the greatest form of drama, and Aristotle ideas of Greek Tragedy and the tragic hero were based on the views of the times. According to Golden, Aristotle’s defined a Greek Tradgedy as, ". . . an imitation of a noble and complete action, having the proper magnitude; it employs language that has been artistically enhanced . . . ; it is presented in dramatic, not narrative form, and achieves, through the representation of pitiable and fearful incidents, the catharsis of such incidents" (ch. 6; Golden 11). Aristotle defines a tragic hero as someone who has a noble mission yet also a flaw. During the course of the work he or she must have some kind of reversal in fortune, financial or otherwise and often comes to a revelation about fate or the Gods’ will. Literature throughout time has held to the view of the tragic hero as formulated by Aristotle. "I would argue that Willy Loman, Jay Gatbsy and Antigone fit Aristotles conceptualization of a tragic hero.
In Death of a Salesman, in the beginning, Willy Loman seems like every man. He’s married to a lovely woman, has a great son, a good family. He has a nice house and a car. He is not rich but not poor either. Yet his flaw is that he is a dreamer. He is Someone who believe it is better to be liked than right and that by using his natural charisma he can charm money out of people who are tight fisted and impress his boss. Unfortunately, Loman’s boss is far from impressed. When Loman decides to ask for a raise using his winning personality he doesn’t receive the answer no, he gets fired. His idea of the American Dream is now flawed. After this his luck, and charisma seem to fail him and circumstances get worse each day. He cannot believe he cannot hold a job, earn a living, to support his family. He begins to drink heavily. The time comes when he experiences Aristotle’s anagnorisis or knowing back. In the climax of the play, Loman utters those fateful words, “. . .after all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.” He commits suicide, enabling his family to survive on his insurance money.”
The main character in the Great Gatsby, was another tragic hero. In accordance with Aristotles’s conceptualization, Gatsby had a complete reversal of fortune. He was raised poor and through illegal dealings came to establish a fortune and create a new life filled with the best, the most lavish and simply the most of everything. He didn’t believe in real life only in the life he constructed. However everything he does is to impress a single woman, the love of his life. He believes that by amassing wealth and reputation he can go back and change the past such that his love falls in love with him. His tragic flaw is that he believes that money not only buys everything in the present but that it can mend the past. When he becomes increasingly reckless in his world building, he brings about his own downfall, losing everything. Everything comes full circle when he is shot by the husband of the woman Gatsby’s car ran over and killed. However, it had been Daisy, Gatsby’s love at the wheel, for which Gatsby took the blame.
The last example of a tragic hero to be discussed here is Antigone. Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus, who has another daughter, Isemene and two sons, Eteocles and Polynisus. The two brothers vie for control and are killed in the ensuing battle. The King, Chronus, decree only Eteocles will be buried, a reward for his loyalty to the city while Polynisus will left to the elements and the wild animals without a proper burial. It is Antigone’s right to bury both her brother’s and she does so despite the King’s rule that anyone who does so will be stoned to death. At the time this play was written, the Greeks felt very strongly about giving everyone a proper burial and the alternative was plainly unacceptable. A sister could not have tolerated her family member not receiving a proper burial since this was a grave sin in the eyes of the Gods. While Chronus stubbornly insists on his ruling even defying a prophecy, Antigone follows diving rule and puts family loyalty over her own life. She ultimately commits suicide trapped in an underground chamber having giving up hope that doing right by the Gods will save her, just as Chronus is on his way to set her free.
In conclusion, Aristotle establishes several characteristics that tragic hero’s must have. The must have a reversal of fortune or circumstance which is due to some type of faulty belief. Willy Loman and Jay Gatsby lose everything. For Loman, this is due to the belief in the American Dream and personality not skill will rule the day. Gatsby overspends to the point of decadence to impress the one girl he ever loved and change the past. Likewise, Antigone has a reversal of circumstance going from the respected position of niece of the king, to the King sentencing her to death by stoning. The lives of all three characters also end tragically. Aristotle’s conceptualization of the tragic hero is a valid characterization not just for the protagonist in Greek plays but for more modern plays as well.
Works Cited
Golden, Leon, O. B. Jr. (Commentary) Hardison, Leon (Translator) Golden, Leon Golden
(Translator). Aristotle's Poetics, Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1981. Print.
