The tragic hero is a fundamental part in the process of creating an Aristotelian tragedy, defined as
‘a character who ultimately makes a judgement of error that inevitably leads to his/her downfall.’
The tragic hero element is heavily enforced within Aristotle’s book ‘poetics’ which is considered as the ‘recipe book’ to all tragedies. A book that follows the structure that is portrayed within Aristotle’s book is ‘King Lear’ written by Shakespeare. King Lear is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1603, and it is apparent that Shakespeare has used many of Aristotle’s techniques in order to perceive a tragic hero. At the beginning of the play, the protagonist also in this case known as the tragic hero, makes an irrational decision by dividing the kingdom due to his own selfishness, following Aristotle’s technique this leads to Lear’s inevitable downfall. It follows the chain of events, enabling the audience to experience forms of catharsis, which is believed to be the main goal when writing a tragedy.
Some key characteristics to distinguish the tragic hero or protagonist within a traditional Aristotelian tragedy are : Hamartia, Hubris, Peripeteia and Anagnorisis. These are the four that I will focusing on but others include; nemesis and catharsis. Shakespeare’s famous play ‘King Lear’ contains these characteristics and having knowledge of these characteristics give the ability to look at the play from a whole different perspective. It is obvious that Shakespeare was educated on Aristotle’s ideas of a tragic hero and used his techniques to capture attention and execute these techniques with such precision to successfully portray a specific idea to the audience.
At the beginning of the play there is a distinct scene in which Lear makes a selfish mistake, this ultimately leads to the reveal of his Hubris and Hamartia. When Lear decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, He forces his daughters to profess their love for him. However, Cordelia, the youngest if the three daughters. Admits that she loves her father the same amount as her sisters, and says that she will not
“heave her heart into her mouth.”
Cordelia is essentially saying that she will not lie to please her own fathers narcissism. Unsatisfied by this, Lear disowns Cordelia and announced that he will split the kingdom between his two eldest, whom he assumed loved him most. This leads to King Lear’s Hamartia – Hamartia is the fatal flaw that results in a characters downfall. Hamartia is one of the key traits that Aristotle believes is necessary to make a tragic hero.
” Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend. Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril, Our eldest born, speak first.”
This line from the play is a great example of Lear’s Hamartia. His fatal flaw is his selfishness and it is obvious that King Lear is narcissistic right from the beginning of the play. Shakespeare purposefully does this in order to successfully perceive King Lear as a tragic hero which will lead to Catharsis.
Catharsis is the purge/release of strong emotions that the audience experiences which can both be happy or sad. The purpose of catharsis is to captivate the audience and within King Lear it is likely that they feel pity for Lear because of his inevitable fate and downfall as the play progresses.
Though most people see pride as a good thing, excessive pride on the other hand can be more negative, and is also known as Hubris. A noticeable trait that Lear possesses is the excessive pride that he holds for himself as well as his kingdom, his family, companions, but more specifically his daughters. Hubris is another significant trait that Aristotle believes a tragic hero must hold. However, King Lear is not the only character within the play that acts upon his pride, there is also Gloucester. He distinctly does not like the fact that Edmund, his son, was born out of the bounds of matrimony therefore making him an “illegitimate child’ or more commonly known as a bastard child.
King Lear needs to constantly be reassured by his daughters in order to fuel his hubris, though within the opening scene his plan did not go as he anticipated. Lear always favoured Cordelia with the intentions of gifting her the largest share of his Kingdom. He expected her to flatter him the most, but when this does not occur his narcissism takes over. This leads him to disown her, ultimately resulting in Lear’s inevitable downfall. Therefore Shakespeare successfully portrays Lear as the tragic hero.
Anagnorisis is another key trait that Aristotle believes is required when creating a tragic hero, he defines it as,
‘Recognition, as the name indicates, is a change from ignorance to knowledge’.
As the play progresses, Lear has moments of recognition prior to his downfall occurring. He began to realise that he was blinded by his selfishness and that caused him to fail to see Cordelias loyalty and love.
‘Tis a lie – I am not ague-proof.’
By saying that, Lear is referring to the fact that he recognises how fake his two eldest daughters had been when professing their love for him, and that banishing Cordelia was a mistake. King Lear has realised at this point in the play he had not been rational with his decisions and had the hope and intention of reversing them.
Throughout the play, animal imagery is frequently used in order to convey lear and his daughter in various different ways. Lear alluded to himself as a dragon whilst his daughters on the other hand were like Vultures, Foxes and Snakes. This is interesting as Lear is basically referring to his daughters as vicious predators.
However, during the last act, once he is reunited with Cordelia. He is begging her for her forgiveness and now uses very different animal imagery, saying:
“We two alone will sing like bird I’ the cage.”
This shows that Lear just wants the relationship between him and his youngest daughter to be peaceful and harmonious.
It is very apparent at this point in the play that Lear has gone through a lot of different emotions such as arrogance, ignorance, regret and anger. Shakespeare had very clear intentions by putting Lear through a seriesof emotions and it is for the audience to almost go what some might say ‘full circle,’ as they have gone from being angry at Lear’s decisions and behaviour to fulling pity and sorrow for him as he ends up dying from a broken heart after the death of Cordelia. This all occurred due to his false judgement of situations and the actions as well as decisions he made.
Shakespeare evidently portrays King Lear as the tragic hero within the play. By meticulously writing a plot that follows Aristotle’s key idea of a tragic hero. Hamartia, Hubris, Catharsis, Anagnorisis are shown throughout the play and through Lear’s actions towards his daughters as well as companions. Another trait that was not discussed in great depth but was present within the play was Peripeteia, this was Lear’s final step towards his downfall and death. King Lear was most obviously intended to be a tragic hero and was portrayed with such accuracy by Shakespeare.
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