What more could someone ask for? However, all of the above are material possessions. He is wealthy and powerful, is loved by the entire kingdom and is in love with a beautiful woman. He is the prince of Denmark, next in line for the throne. Hamlet is, without a doubt, a tragic hero, but is he the classic tragic hero? The answer is not so simple.Īs far as prosperity goes, Hamlet is certainly in that state. And then, we have Hamlet, one of the more complicated protagonists. Oedipus’ pride stood in the way of him discovering the truth about his past and Macbeth’s megalomania caused him to kill innocent people. Romeo Montague is a hopeless romantic who ends up falling hopelessly in love with the daughter of rival family, the Capulets, and commits suicide when he hears about her supposed “death”. So, when it comes to tragic heroes, they usually tend to stand out. This is something about his character that is doomed to be the source of his downfall (xxv-xxviii). Finally, the most prominent feature of a tragic hero is his tragic flaw. They should see themselves reflected in the hero’s struggles. The main effect that the hero should have on the audience is one of pity and empathy. In other words, the hero falls from his place of prosperity to a place of poverty. But what constitutes a tragic hero? In the words of Joseph Kelly, a tragic hero is defined as follows: Someone who begins in a state of prosperity, comes into contact with a force much larger than he is, and then, for the tragic part, undergoes a reversal. The protagonists of these plays are known as tragic heroes. Like the name suggests, happiness is not a prominent feature in these productions. Tragedy is a genre of theater that has existed for thousands of years.