The Tragic Hero: Characteristics and Examples in Shakespearean Plays

📚 Quick Study Guide

• 🎭 Definition: A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to their own destruction.
• 🌟 Characteristics:
  • 👑 High social status or noble birth.
  • ⚖️ A tragic flaw (hamartia) leading to their downfall.
  • 😠 A reversal of fortune (peripeteia).
  • 😥 Recognition of their flaw and its consequences (anagnorisis).
  • 🕊️ Ultimately evokes pity or fear in the audience (catharsis).
• 📌 Key Examples in Shakespeare:
  • 👑 Hamlet: His indecisiveness and procrastination lead to his demise.
  • ⚔️ Macbeth: His ambition, fueled by the witches' prophecies, results in his tyranny and death.
  • 💔 Othello: His jealousy, manipulated by Iago, causes him to murder Desdemona and then himself.
  • 👨‍⚕️ King Lear: His pride and misjudgment of his daughters lead to his madness and suffering.

Practice Quiz

1. What is the term for the tragic flaw that leads to the hero's downfall?
   1. Hubris
   2. Peripeteia
   3. Anagnorisis
   4. Catharsis
2. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a tragic hero?
   1. High social status
   2. Invulnerability
   3. Tragic flaw
   4. Recognition of flaw
3. Which Shakespearean character's ambition is their primary tragic flaw?
   1. Hamlet
   2. Othello
   3. Macbeth
   4. King Lear
4. What term describes the reversal of fortune experienced by a tragic hero?
   1. Hamartia
   2. Peripeteia
   3. Anagnorisis
   4. Catharsis
5. In "Othello," what drives the protagonist to commit murder?
   1. Ambition
   2. Jealousy
   3. Greed
   4. Revenge
6. Which character's indecisiveness is a central element of their tragedy?
   1. Macbeth
   2. Othello
   3. Hamlet
   4. King Lear
7. What is the emotional effect a tragic hero is meant to evoke in the audience?
   1. Joy and laughter
   2. Pity and fear
   3. Anger and resentment
   4. Apathy and indifference