The protagonist is the main character, who is not necessarily a hero or a heroine. People can assume that not all protagonists are heroic. The antagonist is
the opponent or a character or sometimes a thing in conflict with the main character or protagonist.
3. Tragic Character
Tragic hero should be neither better nor worse morally than normal people. In order to allow the audience to identify with him, this also introduces
pity which is crucial in tragedy, for if the hero were perfect the audience either be outraged with his fate or not especially care due to his ideological superiority. If
the character were evil, then the audience would feel that he had gotten what he deserved. It is important to strike a balance in the heroes character.
Tragedy is a drama or literary work in which the main character, protagonist, is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a
consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. People can say that tragedy is typically describing the
development of a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force such as destiny, circumstance, or society and reaches a sorrowful or disastrous
conclusion. According to Aristotle, a tragedy must contain of tragic hero: “a leader in
his society who mistakenly brings about his own downfall because of some errors
in a judgement or innate flaw.”
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Tragedy depicts serious incidents in which protagonists undergo a change from happiness to suffering, often involving the
death of others as well as the main characters because of either a mistake in the character’s actions or in his personality that leads to a downfall. Tragic character
records his rise and fall. When his position at the height of prosperity and resides at the top of fortune’s wheel is quite enough for his fall to be considered tragic.
A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to hisher own destruction.
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Meanwhile tragedy in Shakespeare’s conception is described as a strong of suffering and calamity
unexpectedly befalling a person in high estate and leading to his death. A tragic character must be faced with a very serious decision and he usually fights to the
death for what he believes in. Tragic character suffers through more than one death in the novel. Long before his physical death, tragic character loses
reputation and public esteem, no longer a man of wealth and power when his glorious time ends
Arthur Miller stated, “tragedy, then, is the consequence of man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself.”
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Tragic characters have to carry out for their past choices and actions that contribute to the downfall.
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Thomas Howard Banks. “Introduction.” Three Theban Plays: Sopholacles’ Antigone, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus by Sopholes New York: Oxford,1956, p. ix.
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Noah Webster. Websters New Millennium™ Dictionary of English USA: Williams Collins, 1978,p.2432.
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Michael Steppat. The Critical Reception Of Shakespeare’s Antony Cleopatra from 1607 to 1905 Amsterdam: Verlag B.R. Gruner, 1980, p. 152.
From all definitions above, the writer has a conclusion that tragedy is not just a sad story but tragedy is when a character creates his personal and moral
downfall that result from a mistake in the character’s decisions, actions or in his personality that based on impulsive what he believe in.
4. The Delineation of Character
