Download - Aristotle Tragic Hero
Aristotle’s Tragic Hero
By Gwen Alvord
personal.monm.edu/ ysample/aristotle.htmwww.ilt.columbia.edu/.../ bio_aristotle.html
What is a Tragic Hero?
• Someone with the potential to be great, but is doomed to fail. – Failure comes from a tragic flaw.• Aristotle calls the tragic flaw of a hero his
hamartia.
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Tragic Hero Continued…
• The tragic hero has a tragic recognition.• Despite their fall as a hero, they live on in a
moral and spiritual sense.
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Character
• The character must…– posses both good and flawed characteristics. • please the ethical sense• Evoke pity or fear in the audience
– Have a “tragic flaw” which is the cause of change in his fortune from superior to dire.
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Catharsis
• Originally used in terms of medicine, and body.
• Also used in psychological terms.–Aristotle defined it as the purging of
the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions through drama, or art.
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Catharsis’ Effect in Tragedy
• Aristotle said…– It acts as a release of pity and fear through a
theatrical performance. – Emotions are built up, but then released.
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Works Cited
• JOSEPH LOSOS, & Special to the Post-Dispatch. (2005, May 15). Oppenheimer fit Aristotle's mold of classic hero felled by tragic flaw :[Five Star Lift Edition]. [review of the ***[insert medium being reviewed]*** ***[insert title of work reviewed in italics]***]. St. Louis Post - Dispatch,p. C.10. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from US & Pennsylvania Newspapers. (Document ID: 839863741).