Julius Caesar Tragic Hero Essay

A tragic hero may be defined as a literary character that makes a judgment error which inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. Criteria for a character to be considered a tragic hero includes the character dying due to their hamartia, or fatal flaw, the character being fated by the gods to a tragic downfall, the character being of high social class, the character making error in their own judgement, and the character gaining some kind of self-knowledge throughout their journey. Not all of these characteristics are required for one to be considered a tragic hero, and thus characters such as Oedipus, Prince Hamlet, and Romeo may be considered tragic heroes. Along with this list, Julius Caesar of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is also often credited as being a tragic hero. The play, following the turmoil occurring within the Roman senate, involves a

By obtaining a high social status, being fated by the gods, and by dying as a result of his hamartia, Julius Caesar is proven to be a tragic hero in the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. By being established as having a high social class, Caesar being a tragic hero is proven. One way in which Caesar’s high status is displayed is when a cobbler discusses how excited he is to see Caesar’s return from Pompey. Explaining to Flavius why the crowd has grown so big, the cobbler says that he and the other common men “‘make holiday to see Caesar and to rejoice in his/ triumph’” (1.1.34-35). By attracting a large crowd of onlookers upon a moment’s notice, it is demonstrated how popular and important Caesar is among the lives of his citizens, consequently also proving his high social status. Along with this, the way the Roman citizens react to Caesar and his speeches also prove Caesar’s high social ranking and popularity. As Caesar stood in front of a large sum of his people, it is seen that they “hooted and clapped their