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Billy Budd by Herman Melville fits into both categories of tragedy, classic and modern. This story fits into both Aristotle’s and Arthur Miller’s concepts of tragedy. Billy Budd is this story’s tragic hero and its his actions that determine how this story fits into both categories.The classic definition of tragedy is Aristotle’s, that the tragic hero must be noble and have a tragic flaw. He must also experience a reversal of fortune and recognize the reason for his downfall. This couldn’t be any more like Billy’s story. Billy played was a respected and loved sailor with an embarrassing stutter, but was accused of conspiring to stage a mutiny. This changes Billy’s life dramatically resulting in him to kill an officer, and sentenced to death. Before he is executed though he blesses the man who sentenced him to death, which tells the reader that he had forgiven him and understands why he must be killed. Aristotle’s definition says a tragedy should have “incidents arousing pity and fear”. The incident with Claggart must have certainly caused the reader to pity him and to fear how Captain Vere would handle Billy.
The modern concept of tragedy is that of Arthur Miller’s, that the audience feels and fears for the characters so much that it is as if they are the characters themselves. The characters finally meet their tragic end, and the audience witnesses and understands their end. This applies to Billy mostly because of his likeability. The readers come to love Billy as his fellows sailors do. He is completely innocent and naive at the same time. The readersees his weakness and comes to feel sorry for Billy the way one might for a child. The reader sympathizes with Billy especially when he is confronted by Claggart and can do nothing, but stutter. The reader is with Billy throughout and witnesses his transformation at the end.
In this fashion,
A tragic hero is an individual who possesses a fatal flaw in their character that will bring about their own destruction or suffering. Aristotle believed that “A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall. (Aristotle #1)” This Ancient Greek philosopher also believed that each tragic hero has four characteristics. The first of these characteristics is that a tragic hero is born with either wisdom or high integrity, and in some cases both.
Tragedy is a story or play that has a signifigant conflict of morals, with a noble protagonist displaying a tragic flaw that is their strength but leads to their downfall. The exposition of the story is when Antigone is talking with her sister and we learn of what has happened. The turning point of this play is when Creon tries to mend his wrongs by burying Polynices and freeing Antigone. Antigone herself is the tragic hero because she dies for what she believes morally right. Antigone's tragic flaw is that she has only sees her point of view which leads to her death.
Billy Budd, a novella written by Herman Melville, is the story of the happenings aboard the H.M.S. Bellipotent. Billy Budd was a sailor who was falsely accused of plans to a mutiny. He responded by unintentionally killing his accuser, John Claggart. Claggart's death left the captain and commander of the ship, Edward Vere, in a difficult situation (Calhoun 1). The conflict of this story and Captain Vere's decision have been studied, analyzed, and interpreted differently by many people over the last ninety years. Billy Budd was published in 1924, more than thirty years after the death of its author (Calhoun 1). In 1923, just one year before the publishing of the entire novella, Melville's manuscript was published (Shaw 592). To this day,
In this story Billy is faced with a wide range of undeserved punishments, but shows good through all of them with his strong will and determination. He accepts the things that happen to him in a levelheaded manner, which works to keep the story from becoming a tragedy. The first instance of undeserved punishment is the death of Billy’s family. Not only was he unable to help them in any way, there was no good reason for it to happen. While Billy could lose all hope, become depressed, and angry at the world or at God for this injustice, he instead sets out to right the wrong.
What is a tragic hero? The most well known definition of a tragic hero comes from the great philosopher, Aristotle. When depicting a tragic hero, Aristotle states "The change in the hero's fortunes be not from misery to happiness, but on the contrary, from happiness to misery, and the cause of it must not lie in any depravity but in some great error on his part." In addition, he explains the four essential qualities that a tragic hero should possess, which are goodness, appropriateness, lifelike, and consistency. All of these necessities help to classify the character of John Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible as the tragic hero of the play. Not only does he unfortunately fall to desolation, but also his character captures the sympathy and pity from the audience or readers. Proctor's downfall in the play is initiated by a human flaw, which to a great extent qualifies him to be the tragic hero.
Several comparisons and contrasts can be made concerning the two stories, Billy Budd and Bartleby, written by Herman Melville. The setting of the two stories reveals an interesting comparison and contrast between the British Navy on the open sea, and the famous Wall Street of New York. The comparison and contrast of characters, Billy Budd, Captain Vere, and Claggart in Billy Budd, and the `narrator' and Bartleby in Bartleby, at times are very much alike, and also very different. The conflict, climax and resolution of the two Melville stories contain similarities and differences. These two stories, on the exterior, appear to be very different, and on the interior are alike, especially if trying to analyze the stories by interpreting the symbolism that Melville may be trying to reveal in his writing. This essay will analyze the similarities and differences in Billy Budd and Bartleby.
Herman Melville wrote some of the most widely read works in the history of literature during the late nineteenth century. He has become a writer with whom the romantic era is associated and a man whose works have become a standard by which modern literature is judged. One of his most well-known and widely studied short pieces of fiction is a story entitled, simply, Billy Budd. In this short story, Melville tells the tale of Billy Budd, a somewhat out-of-place stuttering sailor who is too innocent for his own good. This enchanting tale, while inevitably entertaining, holds beneath it many layers of interpretive depth and among these layers of interpretation, an idea that has been entertained in the literature of many other romantic writers. Melville uses a literary technique of developing two characters that are complete opposites in all aspects and contrasting them throughout the narrative, thus allowing their own personalities to adversely compliment each other. Melville also uses this tactic in another well-known short story, Bartleby the Scrivener. Much like Melville's two stories, another romantic writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses this tactic in his short story, The Artist of the Beautiful when he creates two completely different characters who vie for the same woman's love. Both writers use the contrary characters to represent the different facets of the human personality. Using this idea and many others, these romantic writers, Melville and Hawthorne, created works with depth of meaning that were both interesting to read and even more intriguing to interpret.
He is portrayed to be a "sweet, pleasant fellow" (295). Captain Vere preferred Billy more than the others, "… they all cherished him!" (296) As a result of this, he pondered what the best decision was: spare Billy, or hang him? The choice to hang Billy was, by and large, the right one. In the event that Captain Vere chose not to hang Billy, nobody would have gained from his missteps, including Billy himself. The absence of discipline can prompt serious issues; Billy was so loved by everybody, Captain Vere was in an extremely troublesome circumstance. It was extremely unlike Billy to ever accomplish something so ill-advised; he drew out the best in everybody. Captain Vere felt in his heart that Billy's activities were a misstep, yet he couldn't make certain. The allegation Claggart made was a rebellion, an uprising was a genuine wrongdoing. Vere had no verification that Billy was not liable, so for the security of himself and his team, he relinquished Billy's
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally
Tragic events can happen as a result of accidents, misunderstandings, or specific situations, hence, they relate little to others. However, tragedy is rooted in the order of our universe because it reveals hypothetical situations that can occur at any time or place. This feeling of uncertainty arouses feelings of pity and fear because we can imagine ourselves having to face tragedy. In Aristotle's Poetics, Aristotle defines tragedy as, “a representation of an action of serious stature and complete, having magnitude, in language made pleasing in distinct forms in its separate parts, imitating people acting and not using narration, accomplishing by means of pity and fear the cleansing of these states of feeling” (Aristotle, 26). A dramatic composition that captures the true essence of suffering and awakens our senses is one that Aristotle would call a tragedy worthy of our praise. He notes, “It is clear first that decent men ought not to be shown changing from good to bad fortune (since this is neither frightening nor pitiable but repellent) and people of bad character ought not to be shown changing from bad to good fortune (since this is the most untragic thing of all, for it has none of the things a tragedy needs, since it neither arouses love for humanity nor is it pitiable or frightening)” (Aristotle, 36).
The tragic hero is defined by Aristotle as "a great man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake” (Aristotle n. pag.). There are a few principles that Aristotle believes to form a tragic hero: the protagonist should be a person of power and nobility, who makes a major error in judgment and eventually comes to realization of his or her actions (Aristotle n. pag.). In Arthur Millers’ play, Death of a Salesman, he has twisted Aristotle’s belief of a tragic hero, and has created his own. Although Miller has twisted Aristotle’s belief, Sophocles’ play, Oedipus Rex, has a tragic hero (Oedipus) that follows the flaws, dignity, and acknowledgment of the truth that Aristotle believes in to make a tragic hero. It is essential for them to recognize their position and role in the play. Due to the fact that Willy Loman and Oedipus experience tragic flaws throughout their respected plays, they both have nobility, and they both realize the fact (anagnorisis) that they made an error in their life (hamartia). Through their fatal mis-steps, their pride and ego, predominately affect their familial lives, which in turn causes them to realize the truth that they are tragic heroes.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, is a story about a tragic hero who thinks he is doing something for the greater good, but in reality his flaws lead him to a tragedy. Tragedy is a great suffering inflicted upon someone's mindset and personality that can ultimately lead them to insanity and their demise. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is, “A person who achieves a goal who inevitably encounters limits, usually those of human frailty, the gods, or nature.” (Aristotle 1) A hero is named a tragic hero when he or she have flaws that ultimately lead to their descent. An example of a tragic hero would be Romeo from the play Romeo and Juliet. Romeo, a young man of high social standing, falls in love with a young lady who ironically hides in the
How is a hero defined? Nowadays, thousands of people are considered heroic. Whether it be a character like Spiderman or a policeman/ woman whose said to be a hero, in order to fit into Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, there are some requirements. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a character of great reputation and prosperity whose misfortune isn’t due to depravity or vice for the hero is a virtuous man or woman, but to an error in judgment resulting from a tragic flaw, which could be an excess of virtue. In the Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, both Marcus Brutus and Julius Caesar meet the criteria of being a tragic hero, but Julius Caesar impeccably meets Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero when compared to Brutus.
In 350 B.C.E., a great philosopher wrote out what he thought was the definition of a tragedy. As translated by S.H. Butcher, Aristotle wrote; “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Thought, Diction, Spectacle, Melody. (http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html)” Later in history, William Shakespeare wrote tragedies that epitomized Aristotle’s outline of a tragedy. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one such tragedy.
King Lear fits Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero. Aristotle stated a tragedy must be a play where the hero suffers as a result of their fatal flaw, has overbearing pride or presumption, has a dramatic episode of emotions, realises there mistakes but it is too late.