Tragic Hero

When it comes to the roles that literary characters play through out any piece of literature, there are various roles that are very unique. One of the most interesting types of roles that can be played by a character in a piece of literature is the tragic hero. The tragic hero is a main, leading character that has the ability to provoke feelings of sadness or sympathy from the audience. There are a number of ways that a tragic hero is able to evoke these types of emotions from the audience of the targeted observers. Here are some of the most important requirements for creating a tragic hero in literature.

When creating tragic hero in a piece of literature one must mainly focus on human behavior and how a person feels genuinely sympathetic toward another human being. This is not the type of situation that is encouraged by someone who is receiving good luck. One does not pity another who is constantly in good fortune. Instead this type of character must be someone who is selfless and helpful, who then unexpectedly falls on bad times. Major philosophers like Aristotle believed that this was the only way to get the audience to truly feel sad for the main character. Furthermore, the tragic hero would have to be portrayed as someone who had only good characteristics.

This would have to be someone who was always trying to do the best for others, or someone who would never hurt another human being. Then the audience would truly be able to feel sympathy for the sudden change of events from either neutral or good, to a seriously negative situation. Some examples of tragic heroes in literature through out history include Lennie Small from Of Mice And Men, Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, and Hamlet from Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

When it comes to building a tragic hero through out a piece of literature, there is a very specific process in which you must follow. You must create a character that people are going to feel bad for. This character should be someone who is overall a benevolent character who does not habitually wrong other people. This character will have to fall on hard times. It is then that the audience will start to feel bad about the circumstances that the main character has fallen on through out the story. This will make the readers and audience want the story to turn out for the best for the tragic hero.