Poor Unfortunate Souls The idea, one is not born a hero, but must become one, can also be applied to tragic heroes. “The hero’s fall is the result, to use Aristotle’s term, of hamartia: an error or transgression or a flaw or weakness of character…. According to [Aristotle’s] interpretation, every tragic hero has some moral Achilles’ heel that brings him or her to a bad end.” (Rice and Watson 2). Blanche, from Tennessee Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Oedipus, from Sophocles’s play, Oedipus the King, are both protagonists who become tragic heroes. They have misfortunate pasts, free choice, tragic flaws, a reversal of fortune, and cruel punishments. Both Oedipus and Blanche share the common characteristics of tragic heroes, but have their own unique personalities and perceptions. The catastrophic background of a …show more content…
tragic hero is imperative to understanding the reasons behind their words, thoughts, and deeds. When Blanche was young her husband and true love, Allan, lost her lover to homosexuality and then suicide. Knowing this it makes more sense why she has such strong desire for intimate relationships with men. “Yes, I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of Allan - intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with. . . . I think it was panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection -” (Williams 546). Blanche’s choices were a product of her life shattering experience. Oedipus, on the other hand, had a background where fate led his actions. He was abandoned by his parents when he was a baby in hopes of avoiding the fate of a prophecy. When he is older and learns of the prophecy for himself he leaves the “parents” in hopes of avoiding the fate of the prophecy. Oedipus did all he could to avoid his prophesized fate, but he ended up fulfulling it without even knowing. While both Blanche and Oedipus had painful pasts, a key difference is the role of fate and freewill. While both of the tragic heroes were affected by fate, Oedipus’s background was more fate oriented than Blanche’s. His destiny was prophesied and no matter what he did, the prophecy came to pass. It was Blanche’s fate to loss Allan, but other than that, the rest of her backstory was of her own creation. Her decisions of how to cope and live were purely free will. She may not have made the best choices, but they were her choices, not the hand of fate. Looking past the tragic heroes’ beginnings, Fate appears to cause all possible misfortunes to befall them. This however, is not entirely Fate’s hand. In order for Blanche and Oedipus to be tragic heroes they must fall due to their own actions. Oedipus fell from King of Thebes to a blind man of the waste. Blanche was not as elevated before her fall, yet her fall was still significant. She fell from a woman of promise to a mentally unstable individual deprived of all things important to her. Oedipus lost his kingdom, family, and glory. Blanche lost Allan, the light in her life. “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this - kitchen - candle . . .” (Williams 528). Both fell and lost all they had. All of this was not because of the splash of fate, but because of the wave of their own actions; their tragic flaws. Most commonly, the tragic flaw for tragic heroes is pride. It is clear that Oedipus’s hubris is his downfall. “Here I am myself - you all know me, the world knows my fame. I am Oedipus.” (Sophocles 7-9). “You pray to the gods? Let me grant your prayers. Come, listen to me -” (Sophocles 145-146). Oedipus puts himself up there with the gods and he lauds his fame. While Blanche is not necessarily famous, she still has quite a bit of pride when it comes to puffing herself up for appearance. “Blanche: Please don’t get up. I’m only passing through.” (Williams 560). While both Blanche and Oedipus are prideful, there is a bit more to their tragic flaw than meets the eye. Looking deeper into Blanche, the reader can see that pride is not the only part of the her tragic flaw.
Blanche may seem prideful, but it is a facade, like the rest of her. In reality, she has a very low self esteem. “Stella: And admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important with Blanche. Her little weakness.” (Williams 484). This is why she is so worried about her age and her appearance. She feels that since she is soft she must also be attractive in order to have protection and mean something. “People don’t see you - men don’t - don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you. And you’ve got to have your existence admitted by someone if you are going to have someone’s protection. . . . You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I - I’m fading now!” (Williams 515). Blanche is so afraid of not being attractive enough she has relied on lies and deception to create a fantasy to escape realism. If only she saw her worth and loved herself for who she was, she would not be desiring to be acknowledged by men or to create a fantasy. Lack of self-esteem is the hidden part of Blanche’s tragic
flaw. Not all tragic heroes have hidden parts of their tragic flaw, but, like Blanche, Oedipus does. Oedipus is not only prideful, but angry. He lacks anger management that would have spared him much sorrow. Fate led most of Oedipus’s life, but where he did have the opportunities to make choices of his own free will, he did so in anger. “Tiresias: You criticize my temper . . . unaware of the one you live with, you revile me.” (Sophocles 384-385). Oedipus was blinded by anger and the choices of his free will were consequently affected. He slaughtered the men at the triple crossroad, did not heed the council of Tiresias, and accused Creon of plotting against him. Oedipus’s rage brought upon him the misfortunes of the prophecy. While Blanche’s misfortunes were more the repercussions of her low self-esteem than pride, Oedipus’s tragic fate was more the result of his pride than his anger. Both tragic heroes had pride as a part of their tragic flaw, but it was only for Oedipus that pride was the major part of the flaw. Tragic heroes are so similar, yet they can be very unique at the same time. No matter how unique the flaw, how tragic the backstory, how long the fall, or how influential Fate’s hand is, there is one thing that is always the same for tragic heroes. They all have a punishment that is not seen as just by the end of the play. The playwright does this because that is what makes a tragic hero; there must be a cruel ending that the protagonist does not deserve. Blanche is taken away, but the cruelness of the punishment hits when Blanche is presented with the torn lantern, the symbol of her attempt with deception and lies to shut out the light of realism. “([Stanley] crosses to dressing table and seizes the paper lantern, tearing it off the light bulb, and extends it toward [Blanche]. She cries out as if the lantern was herself.” (Williams 562). Oedipus’s daughters are literally taken from his hands, and he asks to be sent away to die alone. Of all the tragic judgement befalling him the true cruelty is revealed when Oedipus finds that after all he had been through, he had not escaped the grasp of Fate and his prophecy. Following this discovery, Oedipus shuts out the light entirely. “O god - all come true, all burst to light! O light - now let me look my last on you!” (Sophocles 1307-1309). Both of the tragic heroes are given a punishment they did not deserve, yet while Oedipus can no longer stand the light, Blanche can no longer hide from the light. Tragic heroes all have certain standards they meet. Tennessee Williams’s Blanche Dubois and Sophocles’s Oedipus are two tragic heroes from two different time periods, but they both follow the characteristical standards set by Aristotle. They have a painful backstory, the opportunities to make choices of their own free will, a tragic flaw that causes their downfall, a reversal of fortune, and a cruel punishment that they did not deserve.Both Oedipus and Blanche have similarities from following the pattern of a tragic hero, yet they have their own individual psyches which gives them differences as contrasting as dark and light.
Blanche was awfully spoiled as a young girl. She lived in a huge house named Belle Reve, where servants would wait on her every want and need. This led her to never experience any hardships or adversity as a child. She had no previous experience of when she was forced to deal with any difficulties. She just had other people to take care of them for her. This is why, as an adult, Blanche doesn’t know how to overcome adve...
Blanche’s situation with her husband is the key to her later behavior. She married rather early, at the age of sixteen, to a boy who, she believed, was a perfect gentleman. He was sensitive, understanding, and civilized much like her, coming from an aristocratic background. She was truly in love with Allan whom she considered perfect in every way. Unfortunately, he was a homosexual. When she caught him one evening with an older man, she said nothing, choosing instead to drink too heavily and to allow her frustration to build up inside her. Sometime later that evening, while she and Allan were dancing, she told him what she had seen and...
What would you do if someone told you you would end up killing your father and marrying your mother when you grow up? You would do anything to keep that from happening, wouldn’t you? Oedipus did in Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Unfortunately, Oedipus fails in avoiding his fate. Faced with a choice between pursuing the truth which everyone tells him would lead to his destruction or accepting a life without knowing any better, Oedipus chooses self-knowledge over self-deception. This makes Oedipus a perfect example of a tragic hero. In Greek drama, a tragic hero is a protagonist of a noble birth who possesses a tragic flaw that leads to his down fall but shows the courage to accept responsibility for his own actions.
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.
Firstly, the reader may initially feel Blanche is completely responsible or at least somewhat to blame, for what becomes of her. She is very deceitful and behaves in this way throughout the play, particularly to Mitch, saying, ‘Stella is my precious little sister’ and continuously attempting to deceive Stanley, saying she ‘received a telegram from an old admirer of mine’. These are just two examples of Blanches’ trickery and lying ways. In some ways though, the reader will sense that Blanche rather than knowingly being deceitful, actually begins to believe what she says is true, and that she lives in her own dream reality, telling people ‘what ought to be the truth’ probably due to the unforgiving nature of her true life. This will make the reader begin to pity Blanche and consider whether these lies and deceits are just what she uses to comfort and protect herself. Blanche has many romantic delusions which have been plaguing her mind since the death of her husband. Though his death was not entirely her fault, her flirtatious manner is a major contributor to her downfall. She came to New Orleans as she was fired from...
Blanche’s immoral and illogical decisions all stem from her husband's suicide. When a tragedy happens in someone’s life, it shows the person’s true colors. Blanche’s true self was an alcoholic and sex addict, which is displayed when “She rushes about frantically, hiding the bottle in a closet, crouching at the mirror and dabbing her face with cologne and powder” (Williams 122). Although Blanche is an alcoholic, she tries to hide it from others. She is aware of her true self and tries to hide it within illusions. Blanche pretends to be proper and young with her fancy clothes and makeup but is only masking her true, broken self.
Blanche could not accept her past and overcome it. She was passionately in love with Alan; but after discovering that he was gay, she could not stomach the news. When she revealed how disgusted she was, it prompted Alan to commit suicide. She could never quite overcome the guilt and put it behind her. Blanche often encountered flashbacks about him. She could hear the gun shot and polka music in her head. After Alan’s death, she was plagued by the deaths of her relatives. Stella moved away and did not have to deal with the agony Blanche faced each day. Blanche was the one who stuck it out with her family at Belle Reve where she had to watch as each of her remaining family members passed away. “I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, Mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths—not always” (Scene 1, page 1546). Blanche lost Belle Reve because of all the funeral expenses. Belle Reve had been in her family for generations, and it slipped through her fingers while she watched helplessly. Blanche’s anguish caused her loneliness. The loneliness fueled her abundance of sexual encounters. Her rendezvous just added to her problems and dirtied her rep...
Superficial is the first impression that Blanche gives when she enters the play. Consumed by appearance and face value, she is unable to see that Stella’s new lifestyle is not as horrid as she imagines. In comparison to Belle Reve, it is true that these New Orleans slums may not meet Dubois standards, but Blanche is unable to see beyond the way things appear in order to realize that Stella’s world does not revolve around material items. This flaw is intertwined with her vanity and her need keep up appearances. On the surface, Blanche appears to be snobbish and conceited.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question" (Shakespeare 1750). "Human beings have no part in the craft of prophecy" (Sophocles 1582). Both quotes are part of famous plays. Although the plays appear to be completely different they do have some similarities such as containing a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a character that makes a mistake and eventually leads to their defeat. A tragic hero usually contains at least 5 characteristics such as a flaw (hamartia), reversal of fortune (peripetia), character 's actions leads to a reversal, excessive pride, and the character 's fate is greater than what they truly deserved. Hamlet and Oedipus are both great examples of what a tragic hero is because they both contain flaws, reversal of fortune, and
She was at a point in her life where she believed her own lies. Many of the things she did were symbolic as to why she did them. For example, Blanche would always keep the light dim wherever she stayed, which was later on obvious that she did that to try her best to hide her imperfections. Another reason she did that was so that people wouldn't see her ‘aging’ skin. Her appearance was always the most important thing to her and her biggest agenda was to keep up that look. Towards the end of the play Stanley got Blanche to her breaking point and after she gets raped by him, she gets committed into a mental
In scene six the reader is exposed to just how severe Blanche’s delusions during her date with Mitch when she states, “We are going to be very Bohemian. We are going to pretend that we are sitting in a little artists’ cafe on the Left Bank in Paris!” (pg.88) from first glance, it may not seem delusional, however she immediately puts herself into the situation by speaking in French as if she were genuinely in France “Voutez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?” (pg.88) this scene is a key factor in showing just how simple it is for Blanche to put herself in a fantasy world. Notably, Blanche uses these delusions to create an image of herself such as making herself appear to be younger than she legitimately is. Blanche achieves this by wearing white to appear innocent and makes sure to never show herself in the light. In scene nine Mitch break her world of fantasy by stating, “Mitch “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in the light [Blanche laughs breathlessly] That’s a fact!” (pg. 116) Blanche quickly tries to protect herself by saying “Who’s fault is that?” this attempt to blame Mitch is a symbol of her want to keep people in the dark and her denial of reality. Blanche blatantly expresses her desire of ignoring the truth in scene nine by saying, “I don’t want realism. I want magic!” (pg.117) it goes far beyond her fear of her age is shown. This proves that she rejects world for what it truly
Before the twentieth century plays were mainly written as either a tragedy or comedy. In a tragic play the tragic hero will often do something that will eventually destroy him. In the book Oedipus the King, Oedipus is the tragic hero. In this tragic play the main character, which is portrayed as Oedipus, will do a good deed that will in turn make him a hero. This hero will reach his height of pride in the story, and in the end the action, which he had committed earlier, will return and destroy this man who was once called a hero.
Tragic heroes represent a more realistic approach at the classic hero tales. The original hero’s tale involves a perfect super human saving the day and fighting for justice like Beowulf. The underlying trait of a tragic hero is his tragic flaw that makes him more relatable to the audience and often allows him to demonstrate that downsides of a certain negative quality or overall negative idea of society. Shakespeare uses tragic heroes to display that even people who are considered strong or are expected to be strong fall victim to life’s dark desires. Macbeth and Hamlet typify the idea of an unpreventable evil that affects everyone including the strong and righteous.
Tragic hero is a character of noble stature and has greatness but is triggered by some error and causes the hero’s downfall. Oedipus is the tragic hero of “Oedipus the king”. Oedipus has a noble stature and has greatness. From the beginning of the story Oedipus is shown as a noble caring man. He is greatly worried about the plague in Thebes “but my spirit grieves for the city, for myself and all of you” (75-76) he tell the priest and his people of Thebes. If Oedipus didn’t care for his kingdom, he wouldn’t have tried to seek out who was Laius murderer. Oedipus solves the riddle of the sphinx. By solving the riddle the people of Thebes respected Oedipus because he had saved the city from the sphinx. The priest prays to Oedipus rating him “first of men” (41). Solving the riddle of the sphinx “not knowing nothing, no skill, no extra knowledge”, (46-47) he triumphed. By solving the riddle Oedipus became grand and short tempered and these characteristics brought him to his downfall. He is too proud to see any truths and he refuses to believe that he killed Laius his own father and married his own mother Jocasta. Tiresias, the servant of Apollo, is being called a lair after he told Oedipus that he was the one that killed his father. Oedipus refuses to believe that he could have been responsible for such horrible crime. He tells Tiresias that “envy lurks inside you” (435) and he thinks Creon sent Tiresias to try and overthrow him. Oedipus just accus...
The concept of tragic hero is very important in the construction of tragedy. It is the main cause of pity and fear. The tragic hero is a character between the two extremes; he is neither virtuous nor evil. At the same time, this character is better than the ordinary men or audience, he has some good qualities. Moreover, as a tragic hero, he is moving from happiness to misery by his downfall at the end. In fact, this downfall is caused by an error or a flaw in his character not by a vice or depravity. Another feature in the tragic hero is that he has good reputation and he is a man of prosperity. It can be said that Oedipus is a tragic hero because he has all the previous mentioned characteristics and the whole play is a classical application of this concept.