Modern Tragic Heroes

[mb94]

I'm doing an english assignenment and I'm stumped. We have to write an in-class essay on a tragic hero soon, but I can't think of any.
Can any one think of any (and maybe just a brief summary of them), whether they are real or in a book (preferably real though). Oh and it can't be someone like Oedipus, because they have to be a modern tragic hero.

Thanks!

[prendrelemick]

Here are three I think of in that light.
Howard Hughes
John Delorean
Scott of the Antartic

Remember that Tragic Hero in the traditional sense is an already great man who over-reaches himself and falls, It is his own ambition that causes his fall.

The modern idea is someone to whom tragedy occurs randomly, especially when they dont deserve it.
eg, Christopher Reeve.

[mona amon]

I can't think of any real ones.

From a modern book, how about Severus Snape of the Harry Potter series? He's larger than life, tragic, the tragedy mostly brought about by his own actions and because of the way he is.

[Bitterfly]

Don Juan/Giovanni is a modern myth and you could argue, tragic hero (he has a flaw, and rushes towards certain death). The Frankenstein monster and I suppose Frankenstein as well, are other modern myths and possibly tragic heroes (there again, you can argue it), like Faustus.

[JBI]

Don Juan is often more of a comic anti-hero than a tragic hero. I think, even in Mozart's version, and especially in Moliere's version, we are meant to laugh.

I think also, any rounded character today has some flair of tragedy about him, it all depends however, on the ending of the book. If the book ends happily, he will cease to be a "tragic hero". Then, we can just say name some books that end of a sad note: long list.

I would think the classic 20th century example though, is Willie Loman from Death of a Salesman.

[andave_ya]

What about Boromir from Lord of the Rings?

[Whifflingpin]

"Remember that Tragic Hero in the traditional sense is an already great man who over-reaches himself and falls, It is his own ambition that causes his fall."

Repeat that, because otherwise the term "tragic" just ends up as a synonym for "sad." The flaw, however, need not be ambition. It could be any characteristic or sin that the gods may use as a lever to bring down any who dares to approach them in perfection. So Oedipus, for instance, destroyed by his, unwitting, incest.


Nostromo.
Tragic hero in that he is almost perfect, but undone by one "fatal flaw."
Modern in that he is of the modern world, albeit written a century ago, and that he is a man of the people, not a king or noble as classical, and even renaissance, tragic heroes had to be.

[mortalterror]

I've always thought that Falstaff was a beautifully tragic figure. He was the most wonderfully rounded figure I've ever seen and when he spoke, he seemed to contain the full measure of tragedy and comedy inside himself. The possibility for any action was ever present in his mein. He contained both low and high, nobility and vulgarity, the best and worst man can aspire to. To me, he was more a symbol of humanity than Shakespeare's Caliban, prone to frailty, which is inherently comic, but self-aware which made every action tragic at the same time.

If you want a real life tragedy though, I don't know that I could do better than Hemingway.

[kelby_lake]

Arthur Miller wrote good ones. Eddie Carbone is definitely a tragic hero- his flaw is probably being entirely honest and open. He doesn't settle for half.

[Jozanny]

I would ask the OP to clarify the definition of *modern* according to the assignment. moral, Falstaff is a 16th figure who is a combination of the Vice and Trickster. If you want to decry modern and contemporary literature, by all means please continue, but don't mislead students who have to meet certain criteria.

Back to the OP: If you can consider mid-twentieth century, consider Faulker's Joe Christmas from Light In August. He is both a victim and and obstinate prideful man who brings his doom on himself by being an outsider, since he fits no racial profile xenophobic white Southerners can reference, being that he is neither black nor white. The novel is at once fairly easy to read but complex to negotiate, however. Depends how much you enjoy your own efforts at scholarship.

[amalia1985]

John Proctor from Miller's The Crucible is an idea.

[mortalterror]

moral, Falstaff is a 16th figure who is a combination of the Vice and Trickster. If you want to decry modern and contemporary literature, by all means please continue, but don't mislead students who have to meet certain criteria.

If JBI and Bitterfly can reference Don Juan, then Falstaff is on the table. Besides, Falstaff is less a combination of Vice and Trickster than he is a culmination of Plautus' Miles Gloriosus character the boastful soldier run through Commedia dell'Arte. There is so much more to him than you imply. He has noble aspirations, a keen mind, and wit. He loves, and tragically is destroyed not by his many vices but by the very thing he loves. It was Prince Hal who killed him, banished him from the land, denied him like Peter denied Jesus. I think that's how we are supposed to interpret that scene. Finally, Falstaff dies not through the weight of years, or a life misspent, but from heart ache. He joins the ranks of tragic clowns like Rigoletto, and Pagliacci. Valiant, sensitive souls who hid their virtue under a veneer of buffoonery.

Would Rigoletto(1851) or Pagliacci(1892) be better for you? They are more recent examples than some of the others so far proffered: Frankenstein(1818) for instance.

[Jozanny]

If JBI and Bitterfly can reference Don Juan, then Falstaff is on the table. Besides, Falstaff is less a combination of Vice and Trickster than he is a culmination of Plautus' Miles Gloriosus character the boastful soldier run through Commedia dell'Arte. There is so much more to him than you imply. He has noble aspirations, a keen mind, and wit. He loves, and tragically is destroyed not by his many vices but by the very thing he loves. It was Prince Hal who killed him, banished him from the land, denied him like Peter denied Jesus. I think that's how we are supposed to interpret that scene. Finally, Falstaff dies not through the weight of years, or a life misspent, but from heart ache. He joins the ranks of tragic clowns like Rigoletto, and Pagliacci. Valiant, sensitive souls who hid their virtue under a veneer of buffoonery.

Would Rigoletto(1851) or Pagliacci(1892) be better for you? They are more recent examples than some of the others so far proffered: Frankenstein(1818) for instance.

It is the young who are guilty of imprecise use of language, but I am assuming *modern* means a twentieth century figure, fictional rather than real.

Regardless of implication, Falstaff may be a human farce, but he still has a direct lineage to the morality play and its limited stock.

[mortalterror]

It is the young who are guilty of imprecise use of language, but I am assuming *modern* means a twentieth century figure, fictional rather than real.

Regardless of implication, Falstaff may be a human farce, but he still has a direct lineage to the morality play and its limited stock.

I see Faust here. I see Oedipus. Nostromo came out in 1904, Light in August in 1932. The latest Miller referenced so far is 1953 so we're getting closer. How modern is modern? I don't think any of those is more helpful than what I've offered, and to single me out is disingenuous.

From what I can tell, the man means contemporary tragic heroes of the last fifty years or so. The only person who seemed to actually help the OP was mona amon with her Harry Potter characters. I might add that Into the Wild's real life protagonist Christopher McCandless would also fit his criterion.

[JBI]

I read modern, not contemporary. Generally when I read I instinctively read modernist. On the Don Juan myth, I merely thought the poster was talking about some rehashing, or perhaps even the archetype in general A good contemporary example is Greyon from Autobiography of Red, or essentially any Atwood heroine.

A slightly older example, though a potent one, the narrator from Aquin's Next Episode, who is an almost perfect example.

It is also common today to see rehashing of the Catcher in the Rye tragic-hero, especially in light of the teenage angst ever present in contemporary fiction.