In the tragedy “Antony and Cleopatra”, Shakespeare presents our protagonist Mark Antony as a tragic hero. He does this by using a number of dramatically effective methods, including language, staging techniques and structure. Aristotle defines a tragic hero as a character of noble stature who has a tragic flaw (usually hubris which is over confidence/arrogance) and suffers a downfall that is partially their fault but also due to factors beyond their control. The downfall they suffer exceeds the “crime” but the tragic hero gains some sort of self-awareness. Before the audience meets Antony, Shakespeare presents us with two soldiers discussing Antony’s current debauched life. This is dramatically effective staging because they are acting as a Greek chorus; relaying to the audience the general feeling in Rome and making us privy to feelings of irritation that Antony is unaware of. Philo tells us scathingly that “this dotage of our general’s/O’erflows the measure.” The use of the word “general” in the first line immediately tells us that Antony is a man of great rank. Quickly following this, he tells us that Antony “glowed like plated Mars” on the battlefield. This immediately raises his status to that of a god of war. This allows the audience to recognise Antony as a man who has gone into decline; he was not always a pleasure seeking man. Rank and stature are important aspects of the tragic hero; Aristotle believed that a tragic hero has to be a man of noble stature because it will emphasise the extent of his downfall, making it much more tragic. Shakespeare presents the audience with a number of character interactions between the Roman soldiers to show Antony’s former greatness, rank and stature. They regularly use imagery of... ... middle of paper ... ...ge including “noblest of men” and “the soldier’s pole.” The audience walks away from the performance with a cathartic feeling, thinking that “good” had triumphed over “evil.” Shakespeare’s presentation of Antony as a tragic hero is superb, we are told of his highs and taken through his lows, we see him loving others and being selfish. He dies as a better person than the man we met at the beginning of the play and this is an important aspect of the tragic hero: that he has learnt something at the end of all his suffering. Bibliography: (1971) New Swan Shakespeare, Advanced Series, Antony and Cleopatra -- contextual information and quotations Webography: http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/tragedy/aristotle.htm -- Aristotle http://www.roman-empire.net/children/gods.html -- Roman gods http://www.unrv.com/fall-republic/second-triumvirate.php -- the Triumvirate
Shakespeare’s complex play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar contains several tragic heroes; a tragic hero holds high political or social esteem yet possesses an obvious character flaw. This discernible hubris undoubtedly causes the character’s demise or a severe forfeiture, which forces the character to undergo an unfeigned moment of enlightenment and shear reconciliation. Brutus, one of these tragic heroes, is a devout friend of the great Julius Caesar, that is, until he makes many execrable decisions he will soon regret; he becomes involved in a plot to kill the omniscient ruler of Rome during 44 B.C. After committing the crime, Mark Antony, an avid, passionate follower of Caesar, is left alive under Brutus’s orders to take his revenge on the villains who killed his beloved Caesar. After Antony turns a rioting Rome on him and wages war against him and the conspirators, Brutus falls by his own hand, turning the very sword he slaughtered Caesar with against himself. Brutus is unquestionably the tragic hero in this play because he has an innumerable amount of character flaws, he falls because of these flaws, and then comes to grips with them as he bleeds on the planes of Philippi.
The play involves a highly respected senator, Brutus, who decides to join the conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar, in the effort to keep democracy intact. Brutus believes that if Julius Caesar is allowed to live, Caesar will take a kingship and turn the government into a monarchy. Brutus, Cassius, and the other conspirators kill Julius Caesar, yet they find Antony, a loyalist of Caesar, seeks revenge on them. Plato set out rules on the traits a tragic hero must possess. A tragic hero must neither be an evil villain nor a great hero, instead the tragic hero must be either a flawed hero or a villain with some good traits. Also, the tragic hero must not deserve what mighty punishment is dealt to him. Another key feature of a tragic hero is the fact that a tragic hero must be a high-standing individual in society. The tragic hero must not deserve his punishment for the play to be a tragedy. Also, a tragedy happening to someone in high authority, will affect not only the single person but also society as a whole. Another reason for the tragic hero to be in high authority is to display that if a tragedy may happen to someone such as a king, it may just as easily happen to any other person. Julius Caesar fits the role of a tragic hero. Julius Caesar is a high standing senator that possesses hamartia, failings of human nature. Julius Caesar’s imperfections may be seen in three distinct aspects of Caesar, such as the following: his pride, his vacillation, and his ambition.
“Brutus, a Tragic Hero” Tragic heroes are composed of the following characteristics: nobleness/wisdom by birth, a tragic flaw, reversal of fortune by the tragic flaw, and anagnorisis. Being excessively honorable can be a person’s tragic flaw. In Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, Brutus is shown to be a tragic hero. Born a nobleman, Brutus was Caesar’s close friend. However, he betrayed and murdered Caesar, which eventually led to Brutus’s death.
While Brutus sees life as something to be solved with logic and guided by morality, Mark Antony views life as something that he can twist and mold into whatever he needs it to be at any given moment. Mark Antony uses the audience of the funeral speech as tools to wrench the Roman Republic from the hands of Brutus and place the crown on his own head. He inspires rage and distrust in the plebeians, and directly spurs on the Battle of Philippi. Brutus is roped into this situation despite his unselfish motives, and has to defend himself and his fellows against the armies of Mark Antony and the young Octavius. From beginning to end, the characters of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar are true to their defining qualities and do not depart from the molds they have cast of
The tragic hero is one of literatures most used (and sometimes abused) characters. The classical definition of a tragic hero is, “a person with heroic or potentially heroic qualities”. The person is doomed by the Gods or some other supernatural force to destruction or suffering. The hero struggles against the fate, but due to a personal flaw, ultimately fails in the battle against fate. It is my personal opinion that Brutus, as he is portrayed in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, is a tragic hero by this definition.
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defined the “Tragic Hero” — his idea of a tragedy’s main character. The Tragic Hero has good intentions, but his own actions result in his downfall. The hero is usually male, of noble birth, and may have supernatural experiences. Although he may not initially fully comprehend the consequences of his choices, he eventually understand their contributions to his doom. There are characters in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar who may fit some of these characteristics. Caesar is unexpectedly killed by senators for his political approach when he assumed he was serving Rome. Antony loses his dear comrade and friend, Caesar, and tries to avenge him, but his efforts are in vain. Caesar and Antony do not meet Aristotle’s definition of the Tragic Hero in full context. However, Brutus clearly represents Aristotle’s Tragic Hero as his intentions for killing Julius Caesar were to protect the empire he loved. and brought upon him personal destruction.
As well of a speaker Brutus was, Mark Antony delivered a more persuasive argument to win the crowd’s favor over Brutus’, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Mark Antony did not overestimate his audience, and spoke to the appeal of the crowd, rather than talking above it, as Brutus does in his abstract ideas and lofty speech of honor, and patriotism. Antony’s speech appeals to the basic needs and desires of the working class, using rhetorical devices such as repetition, sarcasm, emotional words, and the topics of pathos, logos, and ethos to change the crowd's’ emotions, and stance on the murder, manipulating the crowd in favor of avenging the late Caesar.
A tragic hero is defined as a person of high social rank, who has a tragic flaw or flaws that lead to their downfall. These heroes’ downfalls are usually either complete ruin or death. Tragic heroes face their downfall with courage and dignity. While many characters in Julius Caesar could fit these conditions, the person who fits the role of a tragic hero the best is Marcus Brutus. Brutus develops into a tragic hero throughout the play, and this is shown though his qualifications of a tragic hero, his high status, his tragic flaws, and his courage in the face of his death.
Through his legacy Brutus leaves the world an important lesson. Marc Antony remembers Brutus as "the noblest Roman of them all."( ) Despite his death and loss in the war, Brutus is still remembered as noble, in this he represents the moral of the play.
The definition of a tragic hero is perceived as on who is neither wicked nor purely innocent, one who “is brave and noble but guilty of the tragic flaw of assuming that honorable ends justify dishonorable means”. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus takes the role of the tragic hero. Brutus’s honor, nobility, and self-righteousness makes him “a tragic figure, if not the hero” (Catherine C. Dominic).
When one hears the word tragedy, one can assume that the human emotions are responsible for the collapse of an individual. To the Greek philosopher Aristotle, however, a tragedy is “an imitation of an action of high importance…in language enhanced by distinct and varying beauties…[or] by means of pity and fear effecting its purgation of these emotions” (Kennedy & Gioia, 945). He defined a tragic hero as having three common characteristics: hamartia, or the tragic flaw in the character which coupled with hubris (pride which results in overconfidence) causes his downfall and demise; katharsis, the purgation of the audience’s emotions, which causes the audience to feel “not depressed, but somehow elated”; and anagnorisis, or the recognition of some fact not previously realized by the true identity of the main character (Kennedy & Gioia, 946). Therefore, as defined by Aristotle’s concept of tragedy, William Shakespeare’s Othello could be classified as a tragic hero. Shakespeare’s play includes jealousy and intrigue, which intertwined with pride and suspense create the finest of Aristotelian tragedies. Othello complies with the requirements for a tragic hero as Aristotle began with the premise that the hero must be of “high estate,” as if he were the member of a royal family; however, he yet falls from a hierarchy of power to one of abashment. He has married the daughter of a Venetian nobleman. He starts out well, but his end is one of drama. Moreover, Shakespeare’s plot develops as Othello’s katharsis is revealed through the climax and conclusion of the play, while the anagnorisis with the recognition that Iago was a traitor and Desdemona his innocent victim.
Antony was furious at Cleopatra and wanted to kill her. When he got tricked into thinking that she had committed suicide he then decided to kill himself. This shows how much power she holds over him and how weak he truthfully is. It seems that at this point he is only acting tough because if he really did want to kill the “foul Egyptian” (211) that betrayed him he would not be upset when she died. The most pathetic part is he could not even complete the task that a warrior is supposed to do, which is kill. He could not kill himself so he asked one of the few men that he had with him to do it. Eros did not accept the request but instead stabs himself to “escape the sorrow of Antony’s death.” (223) The play made this more serious because they did not include the part where the guards come in and think that Eros just fainted. What still remained to be hilarious is Antony's death when they had to hoist him up to see Cleopatra. This shows the true death of his power and strength because he is relying on others to help him move. It also shows how much power Cleopatra has because even though she is the reason he stabbed himself he still wants to be with her in his final moments. Even when he is about to die they are making fun of him saying “how heavy weighs my lord!” when they are trying to lift him up to kiss her. This is the most awkward death I have ever heard of and the play did a wonderful job of portraying this. Almost everyone in the crowd was laughing at this unfortunate
Tragic heroes tend to have very pre-determined paths; usually making the most virtuous of characters destined to suffer. The hamartia or ‘tragic flaw’ is the typical reason the hero falls. Shakespeare was noted to be one of the best writers of tragedies, one of his most prominent to be Othello. In Othello, we find a number of tragic flaws two including pride and ambition. In William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, pride and ambition are used to identify the outcomes for the main characters in the play when seeing the resolution of the play, perceiving those who survive and those who don’t, and considering each character’s role in the turn of events.
Antony. Shakespeare proves this play a tragedy by selecting characteristics of ill-fated lovers in Antony and Cleopatra. Poor Antony turns victim to Cleopatra's enslavement, and forgets his duties in Rome. Antony is a disgrace to his Roman self, and "loses" himself to dotage" of Cleopatra. He also forgets of his marriage to Caesars sister Octavia flees back to Egypt, to Cleopatra.
Shakespeare has been a part of the American Society for many years. Compared to other Authors, he has a different style of writing but within his own writings, they are all very much alike. He has written many plays including Othello and Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare was a man who wrote plays that followed the same literary conventions. These conventions included tragic hero, fallacy, irony, and also suspense.