The+Tragic+Hero

**Tragedy**

 * Tragedy is a "terrible beauty."
 * Tragic drama is intellectually enlarging and "ennobling."
 * Tragedy makes the experience of the tragic figure our experience.
 * The audience is moved to pity and fear as it shares the tragic figure's reversal of fortune and suffering.

**Tragic figures, or the tragic hero**

 * a person of noble birth who suffers a reversal of fortune, usually caused by a character defect (harmatia) or arrogance (hubris)
 * Through suffering, the tragic figure recognizes the scope of his action and his place in the universe. By extension, he has a deep insight into human nature.
 * The tragic figure endures uncommon suffering with uncommon dignity
 * Remember the characteristics of a tragis hero by using the following acronym:


 * NINE FLYING SEA-HORSES DANCED**

NOBLE, outstanding person FLAW in character (harmatia) SUFFERING...followed by awareness & discovery DISASTER...resulting from sequence of events

**Catharsis**

 * "purgation"
 * The audience experiences pity and terror.
 * We learn what it means to be human.
 * We see the magnitude of human suffering and the extent of human potential in the face of that suffering.
 * Dramatic irony is the catalyst of the cathartic experience.
 * Paradox: The tragic fugure and the audience learn that life is a paradox: Those who profess to see are blind; those who are "blind" to the prejudices and arrogance of the world are in fact "inSIGHTful." ;)