No More Tragic Heroes

Greek tragedies were built upon the theme of Man as a victim of circumstances. Closer in a temporal frame are Shakespearean tragedies, like Macbeth: still Man as a victim of circumstances.

Somewhere down the line in world literature, though, tragedies sort of went out of fashion. It is no longer fashionable for a protagonist, no matter what the circumstances, to be a victim. The world does not love reading about losers. The world is about winning. If not that, the world is about hope. And, of course, to a very large extent, the world is cinema. Who the heck wants to pay ten dollars to watch a movie and then go home sniffling?

It is interesting to pause and think if this win / hope / don’t-you-dare-lose culture is having an effect on the way we set our priorities, run our lives (or, let our lives run us, for that matter). When winning is everything, there is great temptation to cut corners. The means risk being justified by the end, and the end in itself is not predicated by the noble desires of Protagonist the Honorable, but by the exigencies of appearing to have been successful, or to appear to retain (with a degree of credibility determined entirely by one’s observers) a hope of success, of Protagonist the Conformal.

Conform or not, tragedies still happen. And the poor protagonist is at a loss what to make of them: to share and educate, or to hide and slink away to lick his wounds: Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Cry, and you cry alone.

I quote, below, from the public domain, the characteristics of the Aristotelian tragic hero:

- Noblity or wisdom (by virtue of birth)
- Hamartia (translated as tragic flaw, somewhat related to hubris, but denoting excess in behavior or mistakes).
- A reversal of fortune (peripetia) brought about because of the hero's tragic error.
- The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis).

[ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragic_hero]

I wonder how many of those things apply to our own personal tragedies every day? And how many times do they go unacknowledged?

Nobility of character in the protagonist often inspired nobility in thought and action of the reader, and, ultimately, in the collective character of the readership as well. As more than one friend has succintly put it: who we are, is defined by what we do. Just like history enables us to learn form events past, literature has always allowed us to enrich our lives: not by being entertained with stories, but by learning how to make the world a better place. That is a lesson becoming rapidly rare in the literature of today.

It is unfortunate that there are no more tragic heroes.

Only sad losers.

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Image ©opyright Niladri Roy.