Macbeth As An Aristotelian Tragic Hero Essay

, Research Paper

In tragedy, more specifically; in the creation of a tragic hero, there are certain standards and structural guidelines by which a playwright or an author is to follow. One such standard is the Aristotelian definition of a tragic hero. This definition paves the way for a dynamic character who can portray and extremely tragic situation. William Shakespeare may have utilized this structural formula to create Macbeth, the hero in The Tragedy of Macbeth. The intention of this discussion is to prove by breaking down the structure of Aristotle s tragic hero, and comparing it with the structure of Macbeth s attributes in William Shakespeare s The Tragedy of Macbeth, that the protagonist s life parallels that of an Aristotelian tragic hero.

In his book, “Poetics”, Aristotle devises a set of requirements which he feels all tragic heroes should achieve. The first quality of an Aristotelian tragic hero is that “the hero must be good but not perfect, he must be like us in order to gain out sympathy” (House 481). The hero is a person of higher social standing, in essence, better than average people, yet he still possesses only human characteristics. The hero makes a fatal error in judgement that is caused by his fatal flaw, or hamartia (House 83-97). Then “a reversal of ignorance” (Else 438) takes place in which he experiences a “realization and recognition of the events that conspired” (Barnet 111-112). The play is almost always ended at the complete destruction of the hero, either by death or total emotional devastation (House 96-97). This allows for the purging of emotions which lies in Aristotle s corresponding definition of the tragedy itself. The tragedy, as Aristotle defines it, consists of the following elements: A hero of high importance, usually someone of nobility, and this hero has a hamartia or a fatal flaw. There is then a

reversal of fate for the protagonist and a catharsis, or purging of tension. The tragic flaw results in the hero s ultimate downfall in which death or utter emotional destruction of the character takes place (Barnet 111-113). These things in combination with the general decency of the tragic hero, are very important to the plot of an Aristotelian tragedy.

In relation to the plot of each tragedy, the initial goodness of the protagonist is essential. For Aristotle, the tragedy is fundamentally a “play in which great moral issues are involved matters of the greatest possible importance to human life: and these cannot be plain except in characters who are basically and mainly good” (House 85). In order for the audience to feel pity for the protagonist, he must be essentially good , for if the hero is simply an evil person, it makes the audience dislike the character. As it is stated by Humphry House, “[a]n evil man has already a habit of evil; and if this kind of action altogether controls the play, it is either merely horrible or a comedy” (86). However the hero cannot be completely virtuous because “the entirely good man passing from happiness to misery is not fear inspiring or piteous, but simply odious to us” (85). In Aristotle s description of the tragic hero, “[he] was not to be pre-eminently virtuous and just “because he meant for the protagonist to be less than that (House 86). After establishing the goodness of the main character, one must be sure that he is also an appropriate character.

There are many interpretations of the word appropriate in Aristotle s definition of a tragic hero. He chooses to state that the character must be appropriate without elaborating enough on what he means. The general consensus is that the character should be suitably better than normal people (Else 481). “tragedy makes it s personages better than the men in the street” (92). In other words, the hero should not be a common person. The protagonist must only possess the characteristic indigenous to the his position in society as well as to basic human nature. In support of this, House translates, “[the] character must be true to life, natural” (House 91). Basically the character must fit appropriately into his social class, and not possess any super-human powers or abilities. Perhaps the definition of verisimilitude is derived from Aristotle s use of the word appropriate as well. By gaining believability in the eyes of the reader, the protagonist continues to be made more true to life through his historical likeness to the person being depicted.

The likeness of character furthers the plausibility of the main character. In House s translation of Aristotle s Poetics, Aristotle is translated saying, “The third [point] is to make [the tragic hero] like”, which has been interpreted as likeness to the original (91). The idea of historical likeness to the hero is created. In a tragedy, the protagonist should be a representation of a human being from some historical account who holds significance as a tragic person. These people usually led tragic lives due to some tragic flaw or hamartia.

The next step in Aristotle s definition would be that the main character contains some tragic flaw, or hamartia. Aristotelian scholars agree that “hamartia means an error which is derived from ignorance of some material fact of circumstance” (Long 27). Hamartia is not a question of morality, but a “specific error which a man makes or commits.” The misfortune brought upon the tragic hero is by some error of judgment (Bloom Interp