Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Who is a tragic hero
Modern tragic hero examples
Example of a tragic hero from Shakespeare
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Tragic Hero in Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness
A tragic hero could be considered a "noble person with a fatal flaw" or "an opponent of society who is willing to take action that 'sensible people' might applaud
but never perform themselves". In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and
Joseph Conrads's Heart of Darkness, two characters, Okonkwo and Kurtz, have
some qualities which could categorize them as tragic heroes. However, only the
reader's interpretation of the characters' actions will determine if they are tragic
heroes or not. In his Ibo society, Okonkwo would certainly be considered a "noble
person". Not only has he worked his way up from poverty to become one of the
leading men of Umuofia, but he has also been deemed one of the greatest warriors
and wrestlers in the land. "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages
and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements", (Achebe 3).
Due to the exemplary actions, Okonkwo has gained respect from his fellow
tribesmen. Okonkwo has also taken two titles in his clan and he is a member of the
egwugwu, which demonstrates his leadership capabilities and the power and
"nobility" he holds in Umuofia.
Despite his skills in those areas, Okonkwo does have a "fatal flaw". "His whole life
was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness", (Achebe 13). Unoka,
Okonkwo's father, was considered an "agbala", or a woman, because he was soft
and not masculine enough. Okonkwo had also hated his father because he was em-
barrassed by him, so his life's passion is to be the polar opposite of him. Due to this
fear, Okonkwo held in his emotions and acted hard, which ultimately made him
weak, because a s...
... middle of paper ...
...o appears to have more qualities of a tragic hero than Kurtz. Achebe had
created Okonkwo with some nobility, and he definitely had a fatal flaw; his fear of
weakness ultimately culminated into his death. Also, Okonkwo had opposed the
white society and some of his fellow tribesmen. However, his clan did not approve
of his final action: suicide. Due to this fact, Okonkwo can never be a true tragic he-
ro. Now, Kurtz never was considered to be a noble man by society's standards and
he didn't really have a flaw; instead, he had the ability to persuade and manipulate
people to his advantage, which would not be a flaw for his sake. Kurtz was a mixed
man of society; he opposed some parts while accepting others. Despite this, both
characters have exhibited some characteristics of a tragic hero and only the reader's
response can determine their roles.
required to not only restore his honor, but to re-store the honor of all of
John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.
Okonkwo, a fierce warrior, remains unchanged in his unrelenting quest to solely sustain the culture of his tribe in the time of religious war in Achebe's book, Things Fall Apart. He endures traumatic experiences of conflict from other tribes, dramatic confrontations from within his own family, and betrayal by his own tribe.
Kurt didn't fit the general mold of society in a logging town, and so he was
...ociety so weakens and depresses Okonkwo that he takes his own life by hanging. Hanging is looked to as a very disgraceful death in today’s society and ancient societies.
Okonkwo is often described as being similar to characters in Greek tragedies. Okonkwo knew that the end of his clan was coming, and that they would do nothing to prevent it from happening. He took his life out of desperation. He had struggled his whole life to become a respected member of his community, and suddenly his world is turned upside down and changed forever because of an accident. Okonkwo sees that he is fighting a losing battle, so he quits. Suicide was one of the biggest offenses that could be committed against the earth, and Okonkwo?s own clansmen could not bury him. Okonkwo?s death symbolizes the end of patriarchy in Umuofia. The last page of the book is from the point of view of the white Commissioner, who notes that he wants to include a paragraph on Okonkwo?s life in his book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger. Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs and defeats are all reduced to a paragraph, much like his culture and society will be reduced.
vision which inevitably led him disgracing his son and making mistakes as his own father did. “I will not
... are failures in his eyes. Wanting to avoid being a failure just as the villagers are, Okonkwo commits suicide.
her father is trying to make her do what he wants her to do and so, as
Okonkwo - Okonkwo is a clan leader in Umuofia. He has a large family, yet is very stubborn and known for his violent personality. He became well known through all of the seven villages by throwing “The Cat” during a wrestling tournament.
“He was commonplace in complexion, in features, in manners, and in voice,” the manager is seen as a common man since he lives and works a normal life; however through Marlow’s description of him we see that the manager is “uneasy” about something. (Conrad 32-33) We later learn that his uneasiness comes from his inability to pursue anything in life and that he is jealous of Kurtz because of his success. The manager has no redeemable qualities to look up to; Marlow says that he has no “genius for organization, or for order even.” (32) This makes us wonder how he even obtained the job as a manager, but we soon learn that he has always been present at his job for the past three years, and from this Marlow remarks by saying “perhaps there was nothing within in,” meaning there was no way of him ever becoming sick since he lacks the aspirations to that as well.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is portrayed as a respected and determined individual whose fatal flaw eventually works against him. Throughout the novel the readers are shown that Okonkwo has many of these Characteristics because he is obsessed with the idea of becoming just like his father. This becomes his flaw in the novel that puts him into exile and makes it hard for him to adjust to the changes that were made with in his village.
A character with a tragic flaw is one who consistently makes a particular error in their actions and this eventually leads to their doom. Okonkwo, a perfect tragic character, is driven by his fear of unmanliness, which causes him to act harshly toward his fellow tribesmen, his family and himself. He judges all people by how manly they act. In Okonkwo’s eyes a man is a violent, hard working, wealthy person and anyone who does not meet these standards he considers weak.
...rgivable. The clan considered "it an abomination for a man to take his own life" (Achebe 207). Okonkwo went from being someone that his clansman respected to a stranger that no one cared about.
Okonkwo’s father Unoka “was lazy and improvident was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.” Unoka owed everybody money and whenever he had money he would spend it on palm- wine. “He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat.” Okonkwo was very ashamed of his father when he died because he not taken any titles and he was heavily in dept. Okonkwo did not want to be like his father so he worked very hard and at a young age he was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and he had married his third wife. Not only that but he had two titles. This was a very tough task but Okonkwo managed to do it and the villages looked up to him.