Fatty Falls to Drugs The religious football player, the black slave, the obese comedian and the Catholic priest can all be tragic heroes both in fiction and reality. A tragic hero is defined as someone that is of high stature, has a tragic flaw, and has experienced a spiritual or literal death. Chris Farley was an exceptional example of a tragic hero. Although he was not born into nobility, Farley’s comedic talent allowed him to rise to high stature. However, Farley’s flaw of having an addictive personality led him from one obsession to another. Drugs and alcohol enticed his mind, but the show must go on, leaves many audiences unaware of his internal demons. The tragic death of this funny man, afflicted with the flaws of addictive behaviors, was unexpected by the fans who saw him as an invincible comedian. …show more content…
Farley was comedic genius as a Saturday Night Live (SNL) regular cast member, landing his first job on the 1990 season of SNL. Acting in funny parts, people saw Farley’s “talents as a comedian were apparent in the roles he portrayed” (Lives). Farley continued as a comedian throughout the 1990’s. In 1995, he left SNL to focus on his film acting career starring in Tommy Boy as well as his role of the temperamental bus driver in Billy Madison. Critics felt that Farley “knew how to take hold of an audience and deliver everything” (Lives). These numerous accomplishments caused the public to be shocked when discovering his enslavement to his
What is a tragic hero? A tragic hero is typically defined as a character in a literary work who has a lot of pride and makes a judgment error that leads to their ultimate demise. The downfall usually has to do with their pride.
John Belushi was a well-known comedian, but was hiding a troubling life. Belushi first began his career as a comedian in 1971 when he joined The Second City comedy group in Chicago. In 1973, Belushi began airing on The National Lampoon Radio Hour which was a half-hour comedy program played across the United States. Belushi achieved national fame for his work on Saturday Night Live. Once he turned 30, Animal House was the number one film in the United States, The Blues Brothers: Briefcase Full of Blues was the number one album, and Saturday Night Live was the highest rated late night television program. Even with all his success and fame, Belushi had a different lifestyle and behavior that was not seen by the people watching his shows (Peele 2011).
Ferrell had a rough start on SNL. However, he had gladly won the hearts of viewers as he did more impressions and skits (“Biography”). Some of his most famous spot-on impressions included James Lipton, Harry Caray, Alex Trebek, Neil Diamond, and perhaps most famously George Bush. His most famous sketches include “The Spartan Cheerleader,” “Celebrity Jeopardy,” and “More Cowbell.”
Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.
A tragic hero can be defined as literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. A well known novel in American Literature is The Great Gatsby which displays an example of a tragic hero. The author of the book, F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrayed an example of a tragic hero through the main character of the novel named Jay Gatsby. In the book Gatsby tries to accomplish the American Dream by gaining wealth and doing everything in his power to be with the love his life Daisy Buchanan. His whimsical ways granted him wealth and allowed him to be in the arms of his lover Daisy but, it also leads him to death. Jay Gatsby can be considered a tragic hero because he has a tragic flaw and because his misfortune was not wholly deserved.
Over time, history has given society many to whom we call true heroes. There are many reasons these heroes have been looked up to such as: bravery, dedication, confidence, and inspiration. However, a tragic hero requires a few different qualities. Aristotle describes a tragic hero as a “member of royalty,” someone who “must fall from tremendous good fortune,” and someone who creates pity for him or herself (“Connections: A Theory” 2000). In Greek drama, Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea both contain several possible tragic heroes including Medea, Jason, and Creon. More specifically, in Antigone Creon exemplifies the qualities of a tragic hero best due to his prominent power as king of Thebes, the way he holds strong to his stubborn pride, and the sympathy felt for him in his tragic downfall.
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare there are more than one tragic hero. A tragic hero is a character that falls from good fortune and is enlightened of their mistakes by the end of the story. In this play several conspirators are going against Caesar in fear of him becoming the next king of Rome. They decide to kill him on the ides of March in the senate house and then to play it off as a favor to the people of Rome. Mark Antony then speaks to the people to seek revenge on the conspirators, when this happens, Brutus and Cassius lead an army against Antony and both Brutus and Cassius die. The best example of a tragic hero in this play is Brutus. He was a highly honored man in Rome, but he made some bad choices like conspiring against Caesar. This causes him to lose his honor, family, and Roman respect. Brutus is the tragic hero because he has a fatal flaw, a series of bad choices that he makes, and can be felt sympathetic towards in the end.
I found the movie Under the Influence to be a very realistic look into the functional dysfunction of a family that is besieged by the beast known as alcoholism. I could relate to the characters in this film growing up in a home where both parent were alcoholics. I could see my family in the characters in the film. The role of Noah Talbot (Andy Griffith) the alcoholic would have been my mother or father as they both were afflicted by this terrible disease. The film did a great job of showing how the disease of alcoholism can be passed from one generation to the next. As is the case of Noah’s son Eddie played by (Keanu Reeves) who is portrayed as a heavy drinker. But I think the one of the most powerful scenes is when Noah is laying in the hospital bed talking about his own father and how once in a drunken stupor had a bad dream and leaped from the bedroom window breaking his leg. The look of serene bliss on Griffith’s face in this scene shows how Noah didn’t view his own father as a man with a problem but as a man’s man, he goes on to say in the same scene that
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.
The gripping tale of a young man who leaves all that he has and goes to live amidst the natural world, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer showcases the two years Christopher McCandless had spent journeying throughout the United States before his unfortunate death. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, McCandless disconnected with all of his past relations and abandoned the majority of his possessions. McCandless’ decisions either seem extremely unwise or extremely courageous. He had a comfortable life with few worries yet he still chose to toss it all away and venture into unknown territories. What many wonder is why he would do such an irrational thing. Maybe, McCandless’ was simply trying to run away from his perception of reality. Through deserting his family, friends, and material possessions, Christopher McCandless was attempting to escape the unavoidable condition of the world along with the mundane life ahead of him. He was escaping from the impending dreariness of his future and the idea of decisions impacting him and the people around him. Christopher McCandless appeared to believe that by going off into the wild, his life would no longer be surrounded by a shroud of uncertainty and despair.
Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction is a best selling book written by a famous journalist David Sheff. After the book was published in 2008, Starbucks Company chose Beautiful Boy to be one of the books that can be bought in its coffee shops. Beautiful Boy is a memoir written by David Sheff, who is a father of a substance-addicted son Nic. This book shows the perspective of a parent who struggles with son’s addiction and wants to bring him back to the family, along with father’s desire to protect family from destructive behavior and influence of drug-addicted son.
A tragic hero can be described as a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is
A tragic hero is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays John Proctor, the protagonist, as a tragic hero who has a major flaw—lust for Abigail, his teenage house servant. For fear of being exiled in a town where reputation is highly upheld, Proctor initially tries to hide his crime of adultery, but this affair triggers a major series of events in Salem, where unproven accusations lead to internal struggle and eventually to catastrophe.
A tragic heros is someone who faces adversity and has courage and they have similar characteristics throughout different literature. A hero often times experience a downfall, but confronts the situation in a way that causes them to be given the title of a tragic hero. Aristotle once stated about tragic heroes and recited “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” Aristotle also came up with six characteristics that all tragic heroes have. Romeo is a prime example of a tragic hero by the quick judgements he makes due to his love for Juliet. He decides to attempt suicide when he sees Juliet faking her death, this shows his character falls in love too fast and too hard. The way he loves Juliet is Romeo’s downfall
A tragic hero can be defined by several different factors; the hero usually has a major flaw that prevents him from seeing the truth that lies in front of him, which contributes to the character’s peripeteia due to mistaken judgement. This mistake then leads to achieving anagnorisis, usually at the end of the play, but is too late to change anything, and results in death.