ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
ENGLISH DRAMA
Dr. N.C. VETHAMBAL
M.A.(Eng), M.S. (Edu. Mgt), M.Phil., M.Ed., P.G.D.T.E., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Government Arts College (Autonomous)
Coimbatore – 641 018.
Online class taken on 19-08-2020
between 9am and 9.50am
to II B.A. English students
WHAT IS DRAMA?
• Drama is a genre of literature represented by works
intended for acting by actors on stage, radio, or
television.
• Drama is a composition in prose or verse presenting in
dialogue or pantomime, where a story involving conflict
or contrast of characters, intended to be acted on the
stage.
• Drama involves any situation or series of events having
vivid, emotional, conflicting, tragic, turbulent or striking
interest or results.
• Drama is a type of literature, telling a story, which is
intended to be performed to an audience on the stage.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 2
DEFINITIONS
• Aristotle defines by relating drama to the mimetic impulse
in human beings like children playing father and mother
in a childhood play.
• This means that imitation is a component of life.
• Human beings have the desire to copy others, situations or
events.
• But E.M. Forster insists that drama is not just an imitation
of action, but a tool for the exposure of social conditions,
not just an entertainment but an instrument of political
and social change.
• Thus drama is a way of creating or recreating a situation,
an expression of reality through impersonation or re-
enactment.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 3
ORIGIN OF DRAMA
• The origin of the drama is deep-rooted in the religious
predispositions of mankind.
• The ancient Greek and Roman dramas were mostly
concerned with religious ceremonials of people, which
resulted in the development of drama.
• As the Bible was in Latin, common people could not
understand its meanings.
• That’s why the clergy tried to find out some new
methods of teaching and expounding the teachings of
Bible to the common people.
• For this purpose, they developed a new method,
wherein the stories of the Gospel were explained
through the living pictures.
• The performers acted out the story in a dumb show.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 4
Second stage
• The actors spoke as well as acted their parts.
• Special plays were written by the clerics, at first in Latin
and later in the vernacular French.
• These early plays were known as Mysteries or Miracles.
• The very word Mystery shows its ecclesiastical origin,
since the word comes from the French Mystere because
the clergy themselves took part in these plays.
• In England the term Miracle is used indiscriminately for
any kind of religious play, but strictly speaking the term
Mystery is applied to the stories taken from the
Scriptures, while Miracles are the plays dealing with
incidents in the lives of Saints and Martyrs.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 5
SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS ORIGIN
• The history of drama is deeply rooted in the
religious annals of history.
• Thus the early plays that merged gradually into
Elizabethan drama.
• The era of Elizabeth, drama is found with
distinctive stages in twofold appeal.
• i. The craving for amusement
• ii. The desire for improvement
• This twofold appeal of the drama, enables us to
differentiate the drama from the sacred element.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 6
Church to the Marketplace
• Drama is obviously inherent in the very ritual of the Church,
was a factor in dramatic development.
• The season of the year suggested the subject matter of plays:
Christmas, Easter, stories derived from the Bible, called
Mysteries, stories from the lives of the Saints, scenes from
the Life of Christ, which were known as Miracle Plays.
• The first positive stage in the development of the drama is
marked by the performance of these stories in the Church.
• The next stage of the play emerged from the Church into the
marketplace.
• This was effected when the common people were entrusted
with the performances of the dramas in the fourteenth
century.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 7
The Morality & Interlude Plays
• The Mystery and Miracle Play gave rise to the Morality
and Interlude.
• In the Miracle and Mystery plays, serious and comic
elements were interwoven.
• But the Morality plays present the serious and the
Interlude the higher side of things.
• The Morality was frankly didactic. The characters typified
certain qualities e.g., Sin, Grace, Repentance.
• The Interlude aimed merely at amusement.
• Moralities began to be acted in the reign of Henry VI and
flourished until the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign.
• The morality, as we have said, is a drama in which the
characters are allegorical, symbolical, or abstract. Who
are found in some of the earlier Miracle plays.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 8
Emergence of Modern Drama
• The Morality plays with their allegorical
characters led gradually to emerge into real
people with individual idiosyncrasies.
• Comic scenes were introduced to relieve the
seriousness of these medieval “problem” plays.
• An associate, a character peculiar to the
Morality, was allowed to enter between the scenes
and amuse the people with a character.
• According to Aristotle, there are mainly Five
elements of drama: (1) Imitation (2) Plot (3)
Action (4) Dialogue & (5) Character.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 9
ELIZABETHAN DRAMA
• The English drama reached its height between
1590 and 1614 when Shakespeare was at the peak
of his dramatic career.
• His predecessors -Marlowe, kyd, Greene and Lyly
paved the way and Shakespeare marched on
taking English drama to a level which could not be
surpassed till today.
• The main features of the English drama of that
time are - revenge themes, ghastly melodramatic
scenes, inner conflict, hero-villain
protagonists, tragic-comedy, presence of ghosts
and use of blank verse.
II B.A. DRAMA - Dr. NCV 07-08-2020 10
SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDY
Dr. N.C. VETHAMBAL
M.A.(Eng), M.S. (Edu. Mgt), M.Phil., M.Ed., P.G.D.T.E., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Government Arts College (Autonomous)
Coimbatore – 641 018.
Online class taken on 12-11-2020
Between 10am and 10.50am
to II B.A. English students
WHAT IS COMEDY?
• Comedy is a literary genre and a type of dramatic
work that is amusing and satirical in its tone, mostly
having a cheerful ending.
• The motif of this dramatic work is triumph over
unpleasant circumstance by creating comic effects,
resulting in a happy or successful conclusion.
• It is any work that is intended to incite laughter and
amusement, especially in a theatre, television, film,
stand-up comedy or any other entertainment
medium.
• In a comedy an amusing character triumphs over
poor circumstances, creating comic effects. The tone
here is light and satirical and the story always ends
well.
COMIC PLAYS by SHAKESPEARE
• All’s Well That Ends Well
• As You Like It
• The Comedy of Errors
• Love's Labour's Lost
• Measure for Measure
• The Merchant of Venice
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Tempest
• Twelfth Night
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• The Winter's Tale
PLOT STRUCTURE IN SHAKESPEAREAN
COMEDIES
• 1. Introduction of main character(s)
2. Tragic Event
3. Journey (physical or self-discovery or both)
4. Reconciliation
5. Resolution
6. Happy Ending
• The climax of the play most often occurs in the
third act. The final scene has a celebratory feel
with declarations of love.
SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDIES
• The First Folio was published in 1623 with the
first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays.
• Its contents page was divided the plays into three
categories: Comedies, Histories and Tragedies.
• Shakespeare comedies are generally identifiable
as plays full of fun, irony and dazzling wordplay.
• They are also abound in disguises and mistaken
identities, with very complicated plots that are
difficult to follow with very contrived endings.
• Shakespeare's comedy plays have stood the test
of time.
• The following are the typical shape of comedies.
MARRIAGE
• Comedies head towards marriage.
• Marriages conventionally represent the achievement
of happiness and the promise of regeneration.
• Marriage is the symbolic power in Shakespeare’s
plays that some end in more than one marriage.
• Both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night
end with three.
• In the final scene of As You Like It, Hymen, the god
of marriage, takes the stage to preside over no fewer
than four nuptial couplings and to celebrate ‘High
wedlock’.
• The couples of all comedies have achieved happiness
through marriage.
Misconception
• Shakespearean comedies arise from the misconceptions of lovers.
• In Much Ado about Nothing, the friends of Benedick, who is
mocking Beatrice and scorning love, arrange for him to overhear
them talking about how desperately Beatrice in fact loves him.
• The trick is enjoyably justified when he next meets Beatrice and
determinedly interprets her rudeness as concealed affection.
• Shakespeare’s comedies rely on benign misunderstanding and
deception.
• They therefore put a premium on dramatic irony, where the
audience know better than the perplexed lovers.
• An outstanding example is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where we
understand the magic of the love potion, mistakenly applied by
Puck to Lysander’s eyes, and can relish not only the love talk he
spouts to Helena, but her bewilderment too.
Disguise and gender
• A comparable kind of dramatic irony is produced by
Shakespeare’s use of disguise in comedy – particularly the
disguising of women as young men.
• In As You Like It there is a delicious comedy in Orlando’s
enacted wooing of Rosalind, who prompts him in the guise
of a young man to whom he can speak without reticence.
• In Twelfth Night, Olivia who, mourning her brother’s
death, has sworn to be ‘a cloistress’ and keep herself a
veiled recluse for seven years, finds herself smitten by
Cesario, a young man sent with messages from Duke
Orsino.
• As ever in Shakespeare’s comedies, it takes mistakes to
teach characters the truths of their own hearts.
SETTINGS
• The action of Twelfth Night takes place at some
uncertain date in Illyria, an imagined place where
the Italian-seeming court of Orsino is neighbour to
the apparently English household of Olivia.
• Several of Shakespeare’s comedies have such highly
imaginary settings – the magical wood outside
Athens in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or the Forest
of Arden in As You Like It.
• Only one, The Merry Wives of Windsor, is set in
England, and this is an opportunistic piece, written
to exploit the popularity of the character of Falstaff.
• Shakespeare was unusual in invariably finding
foreign and timeless locations for his comedies.
BOUNDARIES OF COMEDY
• Comedy was traditionally a ‘lower’ genre than tragedy or
history, and so these comedies by Shakespeare’s
contemporaries justified themselves by their satirical
ambitions.
• Shakespeare was little interested in topical satire.
• Yet there is some evidence that the rules and conventions
governing comedy were loose in Shakespeare’s day.
• The title pages of the various quarto editions of
Shakespeare’s plays indicate that generic categories were
not hard and fast.
• The quarto edition of Love’s Labour’s Lost (1598)
announces it as ‘A Pleasant Conceited Comedy’ and the
quarto Taming of the Shrew declares it to be a ‘wittie and
pleasant comedie’.
• The title page of The Merchant of Venice (1600) calls it
‘The most excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice’.
HAPPY ENDINGS
• One of the most notable elements of Shakespearean
comedy is a happy ending.
• Unlike tragedies, which always end with death,
Shakespeare’s comedies ended in a celebratory manner,
often with love and marriage as the biggest focal points.
• To modern eyes, this may seem trivial, given how cynical
modern readers can be about the pitfalls of holy
matrimony.
• Supernatural happy endings in Shakespeare’s plays can
also happen as a result of deus ex machina, known as ‘god
in the machine,’ as a literary device it refers to instances,
which conclude a narrative thanks to a contrived but
wholly unlikely occurrence, as if God has waved a magic
wand to tie up loose ends.
SUMMING UP
• Happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried
characters (sometimes deus ex machina)
• Light-hearted tone
• Separation and re-unification, eg. lovers who overcome obstacles and
re-unite in harmony
• Mistaken identities and deception
• Disputes between characters
• Complex plot with several, intertwining plot-lines
• Heavy use of comic devices
• Comic language full of clever puns, metaphors and insults
• Country setting which is often idealized
• Main theme: love
• Gender mix-up and disguise (men dressing as women and vice versa)
• Frequent use of improbable, fantastic, or supernatural elements
• Comedies often contain a philosophical thematic undercurrent
DRAMATIC IRONY
Dr. N.C. VETHAMBAL
M.A.(Eng), M.S. (Edu. Mgt), M.Phil., M.Ed., P.G.D.T.E., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Government Arts College (Autonomous)
Coimbatore – 641 018.
Online class taken on 04-11-2020
between 9.00am and 9.50am
to II B.A. English students
What is Irony?
• Irony is a literary device in which contradictory
statements or situations reveal a reality that is
different from what appears to be true.
• There are many forms of irony featured in
literature.
• The effectiveness of irony as a literary device
depends on the reader’s expectations and
understanding of the disparity between what
“should” happen and what “actually” happens in a
literary work.
• This can be in the form of an unforeseen outcome of
an event, a character’s unanticipated behaviour, or
something inappropriate that is said.
WHAT IS DRAMATIC IRONY?
• Dramatic Irony that is inherent in speeches or a
situation of a drama and is understood by the
audience but not grasped by the characters in
the play.
• It is an important stylistic device that is
commonly found in plays, movies, theaters, and
sometimes in poetry.
• Storytellers use this irony as a useful plot device
for creating situations in which the audience
knows more about the situations, the causes of
conflicts, and their resolutions before the
leading characters or actors.
• That is why readers observe that the speech of
actors takes on unusual meanings.
• For instance, the audience knows that a character
is going to be murdered, or will make a decision
to commit suicide; however, one particular
character or others may not be aware of these
facts.
• Hence, the words and actions of characters would
suggest a different meaning to the audience from
what they indicate to the characters and the
story.
• Thus, it creates intense suspense and humor.
• This speech device also emphasizes, embellishes,
and conveys emotions and moods more
effectively.
FUNCTION OF DRAMATIC IRONY
• Many writers use dramatic irony as an effective
tool to sustain and excite the readers’ interest.
• Since this form of irony creates a contrast between
situation of characters and the episodes that
unfold, it generates curiosity.
• By allowing the audience to know important facts
ahead of the leading characters, dramatic irony
puts the audience and readers above the
characters, and also encourages them to
anticipate, hope, and fear the moment when a
character would learn the truth behind events and
situations of the story.
• More often, this irony occurs in tragedies, where
readers are lead to sympathize with leading
characters.
• Thus, this irony emphasizes the fatality of incomplete
understanding on honest and innocent people, and
demonstrates the painful consequences of
misunderstandings.
• Dramatic irony is most often associated with the
theatre, but examples of it can be found across the
literary and performing arts.
• It’s a way of building tension.
• When Viewers have information, the characters
don’t have. Viewers want to shout a warning
through the screen. Audience members end up on
the edge of their seats, anticipating that something
terrible is going to happen that the characters can’t
see coming.
• Dramatic irony is frequently contrasted with
verbal irony.
• The former is embedded in a work’s structure,
whereas the latter typically operates at the level
of words and sentences that are understood by
audiences or readers to carry meanings different
from the words themselves when interpreted
literally.
• Sarcasm can be considered a form of verbal
irony.
• Dramatic irony is also sometimes equated with
tragic irony, situational irony, or structural irony.
EXAMPLES
• Dramatic irony abounds in works of tragedy.
• In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, for example, the audience
knows that Oedipus’s acts are tragic mistakes long
before he recognizes his own errors.
• Western writers whose works are traditionally cited
for their adept use of dramatic irony include William
Shakespeare (as in Othello’s trust of the treacherous
Iago in the play Othello), Voltaire, Jonathan Swift,
Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, and
Henry James, among many others.
• Dramatic irony can also be found in such works as
O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi” and
Anton Chekhov’s story “Lady with the Dog.”
Macbeth
(William Shakespeare)
• “There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
• In this case, Duncan says that he trusts Macbeth,
not knowing about the prophecy of witches that
Macbeth is going to be the king, and that he would
kill him.
• The audience, on the other hand, knows about the
prophecy. This demonstrates dramatic irony.
• Titanic: At some point before the ship hits the fateful
iceberg, a character in James Cameron’s film
remarks, “It’s so beautiful, I could just die.” This is
dramatic irony because the audience goes into the
movie knowing that the ship will ultimately sink.
• In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the audience
knows Juliet is in a drugged sleep, so when Romeo
thinks she is dead and kills himself (followed by
Juliet doing the same) it increases the audience's
shock.
• In Ibsen's A Doll's House, the audience knows Nora
borrowed money forging her father's signature and
her husband is unaware. We also know Nora's
husband thinks of her as a doll and Nora is unaware.
SOLILOQUY & ASIDE
Dr. N.C. VETHAMBAL
M.A.(Eng), M.S. (Edu. Mgt), M.Phil., M.Ed., P.G.D.T.E., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Government Arts College (Autonomous)
Coimbatore – 641 018.
Online class taken on 15-10-2020
between 10.00am and 10.50am
to II B.A. English students
Definition of Soliloquy
• A soliloquy is a popular literary device often used
in drama to reveal the innermost thoughts of a
character.
• A soliloquy is also a kind of monologue, or an
extended speech by one character.
• In a soliloquy, though, the speech is not given to
another character, and there is no one around to
hear it.
• Instead of another character, the soliloquy is
delivered to a surrogate, to the audience, or to no
one in particular.
• It is a great technique used to convey the progress of
action of the play, by means of expressing a
character’s thoughts about a certain character or past,
present, or upcoming event, while talking to himself
without acknowledging the presence of any other
person.
• A soliloquy allows the character to express his or her
views without necessarily having anyone to talk to.
• The speaker may have to be more careful about what
he or she says in the presence of other characters.
• But if the character is simply thinking out loud, talking
to a surrogate, or addressing the audience, then this
doesn’t matter – he or she can just speak at length
about the topic without worrying about anyone else’s
reaction or perceptions.
• The word soliloquy is derived from the Latin word
solo, which means “to himself,” and loquor, which
means “I speak,” respectively.
• A soliloquy is often used as a means of character
revelation or character manifestation to the reader
or the audience of the play.
• Due to a lack of time and space, it was sometimes
considered essential to present information about
the plot, and to expose the feelings and intentions
of the characters.
• Historically, dramatists made extensive use of
soliloquies in their plays, but it has become
outdated, though some playwrights still use it in
their plays.
SOLILOQUY, MONOLOGUE AND ASIDE
• Soliloquy is wrongly mixed up with monologue and
aside.
• These two techniques are distinctly different from a
soliloquy.
• Although, like soliloquy, a monologue is a speech, the
purpose and presentation of both is different.
• In a monologue, a character usually makes a speech in
the presence of other characters, while in a soliloquy,
the character or speaker speaks to himself.
• By doing so, the character keeps these thoughts secret
from the other characters of the play.
• An aside on the other hand, is a short comment by a
character towards the audience, often for another
character, but usually without his knowledge.
FUNCTION OF SOLILOQUY
• A soliloquy in a play is a great dramatic
technique or tool that intends to reveal the
inner workings of the character.
• No other technique can perform the function
of supplying essential progress of the action
of the story better than a soliloquy.
• It is used, not only to convey the
development of the play to the audience, but
also to provide an opportunity to see inside
the mind of a certain character.
Examples
• “To be, or not to be? That is the question—
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune…”
• Hamlet is in a state of mind that only Shakespeare can
describe through his magnificent pen. Uncertain,
reluctant Prince Hamlet was literally unable to do
anything but merely wait to “catch the conscience of
the king” to complete his supposed plan.
• “Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again, and make
Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!”
• These lines are from Dr. Faustus’ last soliloquy, where
Faustus makes an appeal in the last hour’s anguish to
stop whatever was done.
• “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou
Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my
love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”
• Juliet was thinking aloud about the
traditional enmity between Romeo’s clan
and her family, expressing her
hopelessness about the success of their
love.
ASIDE
• Most of the time, characters are separated
from the audience by “the fourth wall.”
• But sometimes, a character will break the
fourth wall and speak directly to the audience.
• This is called an aside.
• In general, an aside is a brief interruption,
just a sentence or two, or even something as
subtle as a wink. But when the aside is
extended into a long monologue, it becomes a
soliloquy.
• Both a soliloquy and an aside are used to reveal a
character’s secret thoughts and motives.
• However, an aside is shorter than a soliloquy—
typically only one or two sentences—and is
directed at the audience.
• Other characters are often present when an aside
is delivered, but they do not hear the aside.
• In plays and movies, the character making the
aside will often turn away from the other
characters and face the audience or camera while
speaking.
TRAGIC HERO
Dr. N.C. VETHAMBAL
M.A.(Eng), M.S. (Edu. Mgt), M.Phil., M.Ed., P.G.D.T.E., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Government Arts College (Autonomous)
Coimbatore – 641 018.
Online class taken on 05-11-2020
between 10.00am and 10.50am
to II B.A. English students
Who is a tragic hero?
• An ideal tragic hero should be a man of
eminence. The actions of an eminent man would
be ‘serious, complete and of a certain magnitude
and goodness, though not absolutely virtuous.
• The sufferings, fall and death of an absolutely
virtuous man would generate feelings of disgust
rather than those of ‘terror and compassion’
which a tragic play must produce.
• The hero should neither be a villain nor a wicked
person for his fall, otherwise his death would
please and satisfy our moral sense without
generation the feelings of pity, compassion and
fear.
• Therefore, the ideal tragic hero should be basically a
good man with a minor flaw or tragic trait in his
character.
• The entire tragedy should issue from this minor flaw or
error of judgment.
• The fall and sufferings and death of such a hero would
certainly generate feelings of pity and fear.
• The idea of the tragic hero was first defined by the
ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle based on his study
of Greek drama.
• Despite the term "tragic hero," it's sometimes the case
that tragic heroes are not really heroes at all in the
typical sense—and in a few cases, antagonists may even
be described as tragic heroes.
• Aristotle categorized the characteristics of classic
tragic hero in Greek drama as, in general, a male
character of noble birth who experiences a reversal
of fortune due to a tragic flaw.
• In addition, the realization of this flaw evokes
sympathy from an audience.
• For example, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,
Romeo is a tragic hero.
• His reckless passion in love, which makes him a
compelling character, also leads directly to the
tragedy of his death.
• As a result, the audience is left to sympathize with
his tragic fate.
SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGIC HERO
• William Shakespeare made great use of tragic hero
as a literary device in his Shakespearean tragedies.
• Shakespeare’s tragic heroes demonstrate the
presence of fatal flaws within the powerful.
• Yet, the protagonists in his tragedies often
experience moments of realization or redemption
that result in compassion from the audience.
• Here are some classic examples of Shakespearean
tragic heroes:
Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo Montague,
Othello, Henry V, Richard III, Cleopatra, Brutus, Troilus
TRAGIC HERO AND ANTI-HERO
• It can be difficult to distinguish between tragic hero and
anti-hero in literary works.
• Essentially, for a character to be a tragic hero, they must
have some initial virtue that makes them powerful,
charismatic, or heroic in the minds of the audience.
• In addition, tragic heroes must possess some sort of tragic
flaw as part of their internal make-up or nature that
makes them at least partially responsible for their own
destruction.
• Finally, a tragic hero should suffer a reversal of fortune
from good to bad, often leading to death or punishment
that appears to be greater than deserved.
• As a result, these elements work together to generate a
sympathetic response from the audience for tragic heroes.
• An anti-hero is also a protagonist in fiction.
• However, unlike a tragic hero, an anti-hero is
lacking in virtues associated with heroism.
• The anti-hero may be deficient in characteristics
such as courage or integrity. However, as a
character, the anti-hero still has an audience’s
sympathy.
• Though anti-heroes may do good things for
wrong reasons, they are fundamentally flawed
and their actions serve only themselves.
• Therefore, their downfall is deserved and due
entirely to their choices and devices.
PROTAGONIST OF A TRAGEDY
• The tragic hero functions as the main character or
protagonist of a tragedy.
• The characteristics of the tragic hero have evolved
since Aristotle’s time in the sense that they are not
limited to nobility or the male gender.
• In addition, a modern tragic hero may not necessarily
possess typical or conventional heroic qualities.
• They may even be somewhat villainous in nature.
• However, all tragic heroes must have sympathy from
the audience for their circumstances.
• Additionally, all tragic heroes must experience a
downfall leading to some form of ruin as a result of a
tragic flaw in their character.
STRATEGIES TO INCLUDE TRAGIC HERO
• HAMARTIA, sometimes known as tragic flaw, is a
fault of a character that leads to the downfall. For
example, hubris is a common tragic flaw in that its
nature is excessive pride and even defiance of the
gods in Greek tragedy. Overall, a tragic hero must
possess hamartia.
• PERIPETEIA refers to a sudden turning point, as in
a reversal of fortune or negative change of
circumstances. Therefore, a tragic hero must
experience peripeteia for their downfall.
• CATHARSIS is the necessary pity and fear that the
audience feels for tragic heroes and their inescapable
fate. As a result, this sympathetic feeling indicates a
purge of pent-up emotions in the audience, released
through the journey of tragic heroes.
OTHELLO
• “Othello” is a classic example of one of
Shakespeare’s most tragic heroes. At the beginning
of the play, Othello’s circumstances are very
fortunate.
• He is newly married to a wife who loves him. He has
wealth and power, and his military leadership has
earned him the highest ranks and honors.
• Overall, though Othello is subject to racial slurs, he
is respected and embraced as a true hero by many.
• It is Othello’s inner flaws that make him a tragic
hero.
• He succumbs to jealousy and invests his trust in
those characters that do not deserve it.
• In turn, he reviles those who are loyal and loving
towards him.
• As a result, he destroys the very people he loves
and falls to ruin himself.
• Othello’s moment of realization that his tragic
flaw has led to his downfall and reversal of
fortune.
• His own “hand” has thrown his “pearl” away.
• This remorse inspires compassion and sympathy
in the audience, making Othello a tragic hero.
