Defining Tragic Heroes: A Reinterpretation

People tend to have different opinions on what a tragic hero is. Everyone knows that a tragic hero has to go through the 4 stages to be considered one, but the real question lies on the last stage of harmentia, wisdom. People think that if a person that goes through wisdom but doesn’t learn anything and gives in and accepts his defeat, he is not a tragic hero. That isn’t necessarily true. It doesn’t matter what the character does in the end, even if he hasn’t learned anything. If it gives the reader a message and gives them a lesson in life to think about, then the character is a tragic hero. All the character has to do is to go through the 4 stages and give the reader a message to be considered a tragic hero. This was shown in the book,” Things fall Apart,” by Chinua Achebe. The main character, Okonkwo, went through the 4 stages of and gave the reader a lesson to think about without learning anything from what he has done. To emphasize on this, the following evidence will show how Okonkwo is a tragic hero, by expanding on the stages he went through. High status, tragic flaw, nemesis, and Wisdom.

First of all, High status is the stage

where someone is on top of the world, they have nothing to worry about and are above all else. Okonkwo was a man who his people deemed him as,” the greatest man of their time.” Mainly for being the best wrestler in the land and dominant over all who opposed him. People praised him for being so mighty and talented. For example, one of his well-known achievements was when Okonkwo, when he was just 18, made a name for himself,” by throwing Amalinze the Cat” (1, 1), who had been unbeaten for 7 years. They called him “The Cat” because his back would never touch the ground. This quote explains the high status of Okonkwo by developing his character through his dominance over all of his people. His strength, skill, and sturdy mind is how his high status is described. Every tragic hero, unfortunately, has a fatal flaw that ruins their high status, and Okonkwo’s was no different. It wasn’t his arrogance and carelessness that resulted in the fall of his status, it was just pure dumb bad luck, and he got punished for it. In context, after the announcement of Ezeudu’s death, during the ceremony in honor of his death, his 16 year old son was,” dancing the traditional farewell dance to his father” (12, 124), when all of a sudden,” Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart” (12, 124). It was illegal to kill a clansman, it was a rule among the clan and the earth goddess. Even though it was an accident, Okonkwo is forced to leave his clan due to the fact that all of the clan members were furious with him. This quote explains his tragic flaw by having luck turned against him and having the unthinkable happen. There was nothing Okonkwo could have done to stop this even if he wanted to or not. However, this tragic flaw doesn’t have anything to do with his punishment.
To continue, the 3rd stage usually happens when the tragic flaw leads to a devastating event to the tragic hero, but in this case, it doesn’t. During Okonkwo’s exile, Christian white men move in and convince almost everyone in the village, including Nwoye, to follow in their religious beliefs. For example, when Nwoye returned to his father, Okonkwo choked him and threatened to kill him if he didn’t answer him, but in the end,” he left hold of Nwoye, who walked away and never returned” (17,152). Okonkwo could care less if he is exiled, but having almost everyone he cares and knows about just abandon their old lifestyle to follow these Christians outrages him. Therefore this quote describes his punishment by showing how the thing he cared about most is taken away from him. It wasn’t the tragic flaw that lead to his punishment, it was fate that brought this out. Finally, Wisdom. This is the critical point for a tragic hero, because it answers the question whether or not the main character is a tragic hero or not. Anyways, to answer the question, when Okonkwo tried to convince the rest of the village, who has not fallen to the new religion, to kill all of the Christians and take back their people, but white messengers ordered the meeting to stop, and,” In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body” (24, 204). Furious, all Okonkwo did after that was wipe his machete in the sand and leave, and he wasn’t heard from again. This one quote shows Okonkwo’s wisdom to the situation by showing his defiance towards the Christians while no one else wanted do argue against the Christians. Even though Okonkwo did not learn anything nor became wiser from his punishment, he left the reader with something to think about, how to be strong and to defy higher power if you have nothing to lose. Another example is when the district commissioner paid a visit and wanted to see Okonkwo, the 6 men that were sitting in front of Okonkwo’s compound lead him to Okonkwo, and when they reached him,” they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead” (25, 206). It was a crime to the village to kill yourself, but since Okonkwo had nothing else to live for, he showed his last act of defiance by killing himself, finalizing his message to the reader. These quotes explain Okonkwo’s wisdom by showing that the main character doesn’t have to learn anything, but as long as he sends a message or gives the reader a lesson to think about, he is a tragic hero.
To summarize, Okonkwo is a tragic hero because he tells the reader to learn how to be strong and to not give into stronger foes.

In the end Okonkwo was the same exact character throughout the entire story attitude wise. But in the end he sends a message to the reader, and that all what really matters. To conclude, everyone can have their opinions on whether Okonkwo is a tragic hero or not, but in the end it depends if the reader learns anything from it or not. People can argue with this, but what’s the point of there being a tragic hero if no point is getting across? Are they called tragic heroes because they learn from their mistakes? It is true, but they give out a moral even if they don’t learn anything. If only people will see that there’s more to tragic heroes and the stages themselves then what people actually think they

are.