The Importance Of Tragic Heroes In Literature

Aristotle once mentioned, “A man doesn 't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” Throughout society, tragic heroes are always present within every type of literature. A tragic hero is depicted as someone who makes a judgement which leads to his or her own destruction. They follow the five characteristics in which they are born from nobility, are doomed to make the wrong judgement, possess a tragic flaw, are responsible for their own fate, and lastly convey emotions to the audience. Tragic heroes appear over and over again throughout literature, especially Greek plays, because they serve a purpose to convince the audience to pity and sympathize with them. Tragic heroes have flaws which allow the audience to relate and

For example, after Haemon and Antigone’s horrific death, Creon returns to his home and curses, “Whatever my hands have touched has come to nothing. Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust” (Exodos, Line 137-138, 1060). Because he chose to save his pride and power rather than making the reasonable decision, Creon became selfish with his power of authority. He made his pride and power his priority instead of maintaining the city’s stable condition. Creon became so corrupted with power that he forgot about his purpose of being the king. As a result, he loses his family and is left with a tragic fate. The acts he caused from the beginning has came back to bring him down and Creon cannot do anything about

Creon is a man who came from the nobility. His brother, King Oedipus of Thebes, and his sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, had died recently from a war, leaving him to rule over the city of Thebes. Oedipus is known to have a curse revolving around his family, each having a terrible fate. His daughters, Antigone and Ismene, eventually run into problems with Creon when Antigone decides to go against Creon’s law and buries the body of Polyneices. Antigone is engaged to Haemon, Creon’s son. Throughout the play, Creon and Antigone are in conflict when he decides to sentence her to death for disobeying his