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The Tragic Character
The Tragic Character
Stories often have characters that are doomed or flawed in some way that means that they are going to
lose out and not achieve their goals.
Tragic characters also help to make throw a contrasting light on the hero, showing how close the hero
could come to tragedy and hence how heroic they are.
Tragic characters invoke sympathy and pity in the audience. They also lead to relief as we realize that
our own lives could be tragic, and so we feel better for the little that we do have.
The Tragic Hero is the main protagonist in the story but they will not achieve their ends will very likely
die in the trying.
Having been attached to the hero beforehand, when they suffer their fate we feel a deeper shock and
sympathy for them (and, by association, our selves).
Aristotle described the tragic hero as trying to do the right thing in a situation where the right thing
cannot be done.
Most characters have flaws of some kind as this gives them a 'three dimensional' quality. The fatally
flawed character goes beyond this to having flaws so deep and so formed that they are doomed to
failure.
In moral tales, having a fatal flaw means that the character is ultimately doomed. Thus the bad guys in
Dickens' stories always get their comeuppance.
Heroes can be fatally flawed, turning them into tragic heroes. They still have heroic qualities, but these
are not enough to compensate for the flaws.
The Fallen Hero is one who succumbs to the temptations placed before them, perhaps converting to the
'dark side' or to vices such as greed.
We may have mixed feelings about the fallen hero, as we have previously admired them, yet now detest
what they do. We may also still feel for them as .we spot weaknesses in them that we recognize in
ourselves.
The Doomed Warrior is one who will die in battle. Perhaps they lack the strength or skill, or perhaps they
lack the wisdom to know when to retreat, but the outcome is the same. The doomed warrior can thus
be a variant of the tragic hero.
Whilst we admire the Warrior's determination and courage, in the end we are reminded that battle and
war lead to death, even of the 'good guys'.
The Wilting Flower is a weak character, often a young woman, who lacks the fortitude to get what she
wants, such as the affections of a man or the approval of her father. Men also can be wilting flowers, as
the defining quality is a timidity and lack of determination.
Whilst the character may be sympathetic and we will them on, they also irritate us (perhaps in reflection
of our own weaknesses).
The classic Innocent is a child or naive person who symbolizes lack of understanding. In their innocence
they may stray into the line of fire or otherwise suffer unexpectedly.
Bystanders are effectively innocents and may be shot, blown up or otherwise massacred by the needs of
the plotline to create realism and sympathy.
Their being harmless, we easily like the innocent, although we may despair at their naivety. When they
are harmed, we rail at the unfairness of it all (and the reflection how unfair the real world is).
The Madman
The Madman, like the innocent, does not understand what is really happening and so is likely to be in
the wrong place at the wrong time. They may also just exist in a tragic place, locked inside their own
psychic prison.
We feel less sympathy for the mad person as this is tempered by the threat that they pose to us. They
also remind us of our own secret insanities.
The Lost Soul has perhaps already suffered some personal tragedy and in their seeking for repair suffer
further bad experiences.
We feel for the lost soul and want them to find some haven, yet they may frustrate us as their
introspective stance prevents them from seeing possible rescue.
The Victim
Victims are innocent bystanders who get caught up in the action and suffer as a result. They are typically
the direct target of the antagonist and may be kidnapped, seduced or otherwise harmed.
There is much debate about victims as, although they gain our sympathy, they may have a mental
condition whereby they deliberately put themselves into the victim's shoes in order to feel hope and the
satisfaction of rescue. In this way, they are tragic characters in the repeated patterns of victimhood.
The Foolish
The Foolish person is not the same as the fool, at least not the classic Shakespearean fool who is actually
wise. The foolish person is the opposite of wise, making foolish decisions and doing foolish things. As
such they may get themselves into all kinds of scrapes and tragic circumstances.
As an audience we cast our eyes skywards at the actions of foolish people and are grateful that we are
wise at least to some extent.