Romeo And Juliet Tragic Hero Essay

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A literary character is a tragic hero who expresses a tragic flaw from having heroic qualities or even noble birth leading to the tragic hero's downfall or demise. In the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, Romeo tends to act out and make dangerous decisions that cause difficulties in his own and other people's lives around him. Three main theories of the tragic hero are the Aristotelian model, the Shakespearean model, and the modern tragic hero. Each model has five defining characteristics, which are nobility, hamartia, downfall, anagnosis, and suffering. The son of the wealthy Montague family as well as the people of Verona, Italy, were highly respected. Furthermore, Remom's careless impulsivity drives him to kill both Tybalt and Paris. The tragic …show more content…

In Shakespearean tragedy, the anagnorisis, or the change from ignorance to the recognition of the hamartia, is not always realized by the tragic hero. Unfortunately, Romeo does not recognize the destruction of his impulsive actions. Lastly, the tragic hero endures suffering or death that is not only contained to himself but also the Montague and Capulet families as well as all the citizens of Verona. Through the five main characters, the Shakespearean tragic hero follows a downward spiral from nobility to suffering, ending in a catastrophe that brings insight into human nature. Similar to Romeo, in real life, the pop icon Whitney Houston best represents the Shakespearean (Elizabethan) tragic hero model. To begin, Whitney Houston was born to Cissy Houston and John Russell Houston on August 9, 1963 (Stinson 5). Before reaching elevated status as “the voice”, Whitney's family moved to East Orange after the 1967 Newark riots. She and her two older brothers, Michael and Gary, were raised in a highly structured Christian household. Stinson 5. Even at a young age, Whitney was …show more content…

Her hamarta is that she acted hastily, without thinking about the consequences of her actions. Whitney not only made mistakes that hurt herself but also hurt the people around her “Cissy Houston is calling on prayer to help her daughter. Whitney Houston checked into a substance abuse rehab program last month.”(Adkins 1). As stated above, she didn't just hurt herself, she was also hurt and not the way you think, her husband played a big role in Whitney's downfall. “Brown now faces a May 5 hearing in Georgia for misdemeanor battery against Houston, stemming from a Dec. 7 incident (Adkins 1). After this happened, things didn't get any better for Whitney, Bobby's charges were dropped and he and Houston left the courthouse together. “Most of what followed was even darker and sadder, as the Brown-Houston marriage crumbled.”(James 1). Even after the devastating divorce between Bobby and Whitney, there were even bigger tragedies to come into Whitney's life. Finally, Whitney has a lot of things going on in her life. She had a good family despite having problems with her mother,

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