Romeo And Juliet Tragic Hero Essay

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According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a literary character of noble birth and origin with heroic qualities, who experiences a downfall to their demise because of their tragic flaws. Despite the losses the hero has, humanity is validated and shown with redeeming qualities. The three main theories of the tragic hero are the Aristotelian model, the Shakespearean model and the Modern tragic hero. Each model has five distinct characteristics which are nobility, hamartia, downfall, anagnosis, and suffering. In the Shakespearean model of tragedy, the play Romeo And Juliet best models the tragic hero. For instance, nobility is characterized by being in the upper class and having elevated character. Romeo satisfies both of these criteria through …show more content…

In Romeo’s example, his blinding infatuation with Juliet causes him to be oblivious to his consequences. In Shakespearean tragedy, the anagnosis, or the change from ignorance to recognition of the hamartia, is not always realized by the tragic hero. Unfortunately, Romeo doesn't recognize the destruction of his impulsive actions. Lastly, the tragic hero endures suffering or death that is not contained in themself as Romeo’s suicide resulted to Juliet’s suicide and stops the near endless fight between the Montagnes and Capulets through all of Verona. Through the five main characteristics, the Shakespearean tragic hero follows a downward spiral from nobility to suffering, ending in a catastrophe that brings insight into human nature. Unlike Romeo however, the popular pop icon Kanye Omari West, also known as Kanye West, Kanye or Ye, best represents the Aristotelian (Greek) tragic hero model. To start, Kanye West was born to Donda West and Jay West in Atlanta, Georgia, but grew up in Chicago (Simons 17). Before reaching the high status that he has gotten, West started to get into the music business very young, “He wrote and recorded his first rap, Green Eggs and Ham, while attending Vanderpoel Elementary” (Chambers …show more content…

To continue, Kanye West’s life develops as a Greek tragedy because he maintains the major flaw of hubris. His hamartia is that he was too confident in his ability to keep his massive fame. As stated by Kanye West himself about slavery in 2018 “That sounds like a choice. You were there for 400 years and it is all y’all”(Robinson 2). West said a very controversial thought that would ruin any reputation, yet he said it anyways as he thought his reputation would stay the same because of his race. West was also anti-Jewish, stating on X that he would go, “death con 3 on Jewish people” (adidas 1). Death Con 3, also known as Defcon 3, is meant to send bomber crews and missile operators, West claims he wants to kill Jews. West, on top of his anti-Jewish statements, also stated his opinion on Adolf Hitler, the opinion mostly supporting Hitler and his actions (Chambers 5). All in all, he has made some controversial remarks about slavery and Jews, which contributed to his downfall. Finally, Kanye West faced a sudden downfall when he made many hateful remarks about Jews and supporting Hitler on social media and in interviews, spreading quickly (Chamber

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