The Tragic Hero of the Classical Period
Abstract
Just as tragic heroes and heroines have been identified with different eras and cultures, the classical ideal of the tragic hero will be incomplete if the concept of tragedy is not focalized. This paper, therefore, looks at how the classical period defined and delineated its tragic hero based on the action and the plot of the play. The paper provides extracts from Sophocles’ King Oedipus as the main text and Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris as a supporting text to present Oedipus as the tragic hero. Textual analysis shows that the delineation of the tragic hero lies in the source or context of the tragic situation. Sophocles and Euripides’ views on the tragic hero are similar to Aristotle’s concept of “hamartia” of the classical period.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
English Language and Literature Studies ISSN 1925-4768 (Print) ISSN 1925-4776 (Online)
Copyright © Canadian Center of Science and Education
To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the 'ccsenet.org' domain to your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.