TA 2014 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Tragic Hero, Hamartia
3 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
Aristotle said that the tragic vision conceives of human beings as being capable of transcendent greatness and abject (complete) defeat at one and the same time. Human beings, then, can be both vulnerable and invincible at the same moment. This seems like it is a contradiction, like it is impossible given that invincible and vulnerable are exact opposites of one another. However, that is exactly what aristotle was getting at. Often, in our moments of greatest triumph and courage, we are also at our most mortal and vulnerable. Perhaps we are physically vulnerable and defeated in a certain moment; but our courage, our spirit lives beyond our struggle. Think of someone like martin luther king, jr. He was literally vulnerable and was defeated (assassinated); however, he was transcendently great and. Invincible in that his struggle and what he fought for lived long after he died.
