Tragic hero
The tragic hero is a protagonist of a tragedy .
According to Aristotle , the tragic hero suffers his misfortune for reasons that can be found in himself. Consequently, as an agent, he bears the responsibility for his actions, but this does not happen out of a negative motivation. In addition, the tragic hero has to be intelligent to see the mistakes of his actions.
Friedrich Schiller summarizes four characteristics in his work Ueber the reason for the pleasure in tragic objects . The tragic hero obeys duties to the detriment of inclination. His choice of duty makes that hero suffer, resulting in a tragic role. The dilemma also plunges the hero into tragedy when he has to choose a higher duty to the disadvantage of the lower duty. Furthermore, even a villain can be a tragic hero if he takes pleasure in his actions even though the goals are amoral.
The death of the tragic hero is common.
Example from the literature
Oedipus
The king's son Oedipus kills a traveler who had refused him passage. In Thebes he solves the riddle of the Sphinx and marries the king's widow Iokaste . The traveler later portrays himself as his actual father Laios , with which Oedipus married and impregnated his own mother. Oedipus pierces his eyes and leaves Thebes.
Aias
Aias wantsrevengeon Odysseus , but Athena savesher protégé by having Aias slaughter the flock of Greek sheep in a maddened state. The goddess Aias orders a return to the camp. Ashamed and rejected by all allies, he chooses suicide.
Antigone
, the Theban king Creon enacted the law that everyone should be executed, the Polynices granted a grave. When his niece and future daughter-in-law Antigone violates this, he has to act. He adheres to the positive law and banishes Antigone to a burial chamber, where she finally takes her own life.
Wallenstein
The badly damaged Generalissimo Wallenstein receives the news that his troops have been broken up. His personal situation ishopelessbecause of the ostracism , but he still rises.
Outside of tragedy, the tragic hero appears in novels and stories as well as films. The captain Ahab is known in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick , whose fault is the obsession with the white whale.
literature
- Brigitte Kappl: The poetics of Aristotle in the poetry theory of the Cinquecento. Gruyter, Berlin 2006.
- Hans-Dieter Gelfert: The tragedy. Theory and history. In: Kleine Vandenhoeck series, vol. 1570. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1995.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Brigitte Kappl: The Poetics of Aristotle in the Cinquecento poetry theory. Gruyter, Berlin 2006. p. 227.
- ↑ Cf. Brigitte Kappl: The Poetics of Aristotle in the Cinquecento poetry theory. Gruyter, Berlin 2006. p. 229.
- ↑ See Paul Barone: Schiller and the tradition of the sublime. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2004 pp. 169–170.
- ↑ See Eva Hänßgen: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and the ancient epic. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2003 p. 124.