Definition_of_Hero

The Definition of a Tragic Hero During the times when the Ancient Greeks were flourishing, as a method of an entertainment, tragic plays had a significant position within the citizens of Greece. Many of the successful plays that endured the passage of time to this day all have contained "elements of tragedy" as written by Aristotle in his Poetics. In Antigone, a play written by Sophocles, one of the most renowned Greek playwright, Creon, the king of Thebes, clearly shows the characteristics as described by Aristotle. The social position of Creon compared to many of the characters and the audience amplifies the element of tragedy in the play. After the death of Eteocles and Polyneices, the sons of the previous king, Creon declares: “…and I, as the/next in blood, have succeeded to the full power of the/throne.” (I. 18-20) Originally, Creon was the brother of the former queen of Thebes, and the deaths of his nephews allowed him to seize the throne. As a king, Creon fits one of the main elements of tragedy of being a character with a high social position. However, it is this very position in the social pyramid that gets Creon very bombastic and power hungry, which causes him to make a huge error in his judgment. In his desire to secure complete control over his kingdom, also in demonstration of his power, he insipidly says, “Breaking the given laws and boasting of it/Who is the man here,/She or I, if this crime goes unpunished'/Sister’s child, or more than sister’s child,/Or closer yet in blood-she and her sister/Win bitter death for this!” (II. 81-86) As a newly elected king, Creon boasts a totalitarian rule, never overlooking anything, even if the accused criminal was his own niece, who was also a princess of the kingdom. By this unrealistic showing of power, Creon himself paves the way to his own demise. Throughout the play, the events and the wrongdoings of the character gather up, until the entire life of the character turns for the worse. Because of Creon’s disobedience to the gods’ law, he receives a prophecy from the blind prophet Tiresias: “Not many days,/And your house will be full of men and women/weeping,/And curses will be hurled at you from far/Cities grieving for sons unburied, left to rot/Before the walls of Thebes.” (IV. 79-83) From this prophecy we can expect a huge tragedy to strike the royal house of Thebes. All of these tragedies were chain reaction from Creon’s forbiddance of the burial of Polyneices. After Creon finds out about the death of his entire family, the crestfallen king laments, “Lead me away, I have been rash and foolish./I have killed my son and wife./I look for comfort; my comfort lies here dead./Whatever my hands have touched had come to nothing./Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust.” (Exodos. 134-138) From this we can confirm the anagnorisis, as Creon himself recognized that he brought the disaster upon his family by himself. Creon clearly discovered that it was his mistake in the beginning that caused the death of his son and wife, and he has nothing to live for. In the end the little action to maintain his power snowballed to the most tragic event that could ever happen to a single person. Aristotle, a great Greek philosopher, said “the function of the tragedy is to arouse pit and fear in the audience so that we may be purged of unsettling emotions.” Aristotle listed the characteristics of a tragic hero from showing of the harmartia and reaching anagnorisis. These various factors come together to form a Aristotelian tragic character. Works Cited Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S.H. Butcher. "Selections from Aristotle's Poetics." Classical Pursuits. 2010 Classical Pursuits, Inc. 21 March 2010 Spohocles. Antigone. Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerlad. Elements of Luterature: Fourth Course. Holt, Rinehart and Winston: San Francisco, 1997.