3.4 – The tragic Hero

Task:

Develop a response to this statement – Knowledge of the Aristotelian tragic hero reveals much about Shakespeare’s intentions in the tragedy King Lear.

Sometimes in tragedy, we find our life’s purpose. The tragedy is depicted by the downfall of a noble hero, through a combination of arrogance and fate. A fatal flaw will lead to the demise of a tragic hero. The play of King Lear is a tragedy like many of Shakespeare’s plays, they all have a tragic hero that ends up meeting their demise thanks to their tragic flaw. The plot of this play is compelled by the power and consequences of the losses of Lear. Lear the tragic hero must feel suffering and contrast those good times to their suffering however, his suffering ultimately leads to chaos and his death. The audience often sees throughout this play that one loss builds on another but additionally, his greatest loss and what distinguishes this tragedy from others is his chance of redemption.

A tragic hero is a character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to the self-destruction of his or her character. A tragic hero is a common character found in many of Shakespeare’s plays. They should be neither better or worse morally than normal people allowing the audience to identify with the tragic hero. As the audience can identify with the tragic hero it introduces pity. If the hero were perfect the audience would feel outraged with their fate, however, if the hero were to be imperfect or evil the audience would feel that they have gotten what they deserve. An Aristotelian tragic hero has key characteristics, as a tragic hero always has a major flaw or error in judgment (hamartia) they will always take justice or revenge in the judgment. They will always have a reversal of fortune (peripeteia), “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall” – Aristotle Brought on by the hero’s own error in judgment, however, the tragic hero will always recognize that his reversal was brought on by himself. King Lear has excessive pride due to his high noble status. He is flawed by his arrogance, ignorance and his misjudgments. Eventually, the Aristotelian tragic hero dies a tragic death, having fallen from great heights and having made an irreversible mistake. The hero must courageously accept their death with honor. Shakespeare’s intentionally used Aristotle’s theory to write King lear as we can follow the main characteristics of an Aristotelian tragic hero and identify those characteristics within the play, King Lear. Aristotle believes that the plot is the most important thing in a play, the plot can be driven with any characters. Essential to creating a good tragedy is that it should maintain the unity of the plot. Aristotle’s purpose in creating a tragedy is to arouse the audience is feeling the emotions of pity and fear. As the audience in King Lear, we feel pity for him and therefore have a cathartic experience. Therefore we know King Lear is a tragic hero under Aristotle’s poetics.

An Aristotelian tragic hero will always experience an Inciting incident. This is an event or decision that begins a stories problem. Everything before is backstory, everything after is ‘the story’. Through the play, the audience experiences an erosion of Lear’s power and his depth of conflict with his daughters is revealed and the conspiracy which unites Goneril, Regan & Edmund. As a tragic hero King Lear is flawed by his arrogance, he asks all his daughter to give reasons for how much they love Lear, however, “Tell me now we will divest us both of rule, interest of territory, cares of state, which of you doth love us most, that we our largest bounty may extend where nature doth with merit challenge.” – King Lear Cordelia said nothing. Resulting in Lear disowning her. Lear wants to give his kingdom away to his daughters. Goneril & Regan gave reasons for their love towards their father however Cordelia said nothing. Lear disowned her. The inciting incident is where the tragedy takes off. It is often where we see the protagonists fatal flaw, a key part of an Aristotelian tragedy.  

During the play King Lear experiences a reversal of fortune also know as their peripeteia, this is a key characteristic for a tragic hero. This is the turning point in which the plot then moves steadily towards its denouement and the shift of the tragic hero (protagonists) fortune from good to bad. This reversal may make the audience feel pity or fear towards the protagonist leading to the audience experiencing a cathartic moment. Which is Aristotle’s goal in a tragedy.  The reversal of fortune that starts with Lear starts with the arrogance that lear has always shown throughout the entire play. His reversal of good fortune to bad fortune first occurs when his daughters decided not to take their father into the shelter and provide food for him. Here we feel pity for Lear. Goneril first denied her father as she tried to tear her father down saying, “As you are old and reverend, should be wise. / Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires, / men so disordered, so deboshed, and bold, / That this our court, infected with their manners, / shows like a riotous inn. Epicurism and lust / Makes it more like a tavern or a brothel / Than a graced palace” – Goneril. His bad fortune continues when he has to endure the elements of the dreadful storm, with no place to go he begins to go insane, “Rumble thy bellyful. Spit, fire. Spout, rain! / Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters. / I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. / I never gave you a kingdom, called your children, / You owe me no subscription” – Lear. Lear often switches between verse and prose during his reversal of fortune, this helps us to understand that he is going mad. A reversal of fortune is essential characteristic or action a tragic hero will experience, Shakespeare intended for Lear to be a tragedy as King Lear has the characteristics of a tragic hero, especially something so essential to a tragic hero story as the reversal of fortune (Peripeteia).

Tragic heroes are held in high regard but are struck with misfortune through their own error. The noblest of men can succumb to their own flaws until driven to the edge of insanity, as illustrated in Shakespeare’s play, King Lear. King Lear represents all qualities of a tragic hero and in the end is ruined by his own vice, by driving himself to the point of full-blown insanity as a result of his actions. King Lear’s fatal flaw is that he is selfish, ignorant, blind to the truth and has excessive pride. Each of his flaws contributes to each other.  Lear is a tragic hero because he has those qualities. The first flaw in King Lear is his arrogance, which results in the loss of Cordelia and Kent. Lear is outraged when Cordelia does not lavish him in kind words like he had expected her too and as a result, banishes her from the kingdom. This action shows the reader insight into what will be Lear’s downfall. What he does not realize just yet is that Cordelia is the only daughter that actually does love her father, but his arrogance blinded him from seeing this. Lear has been blind to which daughter truly loves him, “No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I’ll not love. Read thou this challenge; mark but the penning of it.” When he loses what matters most to him, he can understand himself. After banishing Cordelia, Lear lives under the care of his two oldest daughters, who earlier spoke their love for him. However, they begin to abuse their father. Locking him out in the storm. Lear then realizes that he has made a huge mistake and Cordelia was the only one who truly loved him. Lightning struck when Lear’s arrogance led him to believe Cordelia would say more to show her love for him. Lear’s madness started to set in when he is shocked by the betrayal of Goneril and Regan, he recognizes his mistake and rash judgment resulting in Cordelia’s banishment. He flees the home of his evil daughters and is left wandering through a great storm, completely consumed in his insanity. The character of an Aristotelian tragic hero will always have a fatal flaw within their character which leads to their downfall. Shakespeare intended for Lear to be a tragedy as King Lear has the characteristics of a tragic hero especially something so essential to a tragic hero story as a fatal flaw (Hamartia).

A Catastrophe will always happen towards the end of a text, it unravels the mystery or intrigue and brings the story towards a logical end. In King Lear, this is where we see all the opening scene characters gather once again to receive the reward of their deeds. Albany demands the release of Cordelia and Lear, and Edmund refuses to give them up. We see to what an insane length had gone the rivalry of Regan and Goneril over Edmund. Regan is given poison by her sister and dies horribly. Albany taunts his wife with the incriminating letter and charges Edmund with treason. Goneril stabs herself to death, and, while Edgar tries to save the prisoners, Lear comes into the scene with murdered Cordelia in his arms, and in a wild burst of grief over her and dies. The wheel has come full circle. The “darker purpose” of the opening scene has brought about this holocaust. Characters are punished for their mistakes as well as for their crimes, and the innocent are overwhelmed in the disasters. The knot is untied. Catharsis can be brought on by injustice in which the audience feels sympathy towards the character for the injustice served to them. Cordelia didn’t deserve the fate of death. She only had good intentions. So as the audience we feel sympathy and pity for Cordelia. Catharsis is the goal of a tragedy it is the purge of emotions particularly fear or pity. We feel pity for Lear throughout the play. Through the catastrophe, we see the downfall of our noble hero in which our tragedy is depicted.

Aristotle’s goal of a tragedy was to bring about catharsis to the spectators to make them feel emotions of pity and fear. To purge these emotions so they leave the theater feeling cleansed and uplifted with more of an understanding of the ways of God and men. Catharsis is brought about by witnessing some disastrous fortunes of the protagonist. Aristotle recognized that the change might not be disastrous, but felt this was the kind shown in the best tragedies. The aim of a tragedy is to arouse pity and fear through the protagonist, he/she must be a character which the audience can identify with and whose fate will trigger these emotions. Aristotle says, “pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves.” The hero as a character he must be true to type, true to life and consistent. King Lear brings a cathartic experience to the audience due to the pity we fell for him during his inciting incident and reversal of fortune. By Aristotle’s definition, we know that King Lear is a tick all the boxes of a tragic hero.