Pelagio 1

Omar Pelagio

Ms. Pinkelman

9-10 Block English

12 December 2016

Q2 End of Unit Essay

To start with, a tragic hero is a character who makes judgement errors and finally dies

from them. Tragic heroes exist in all time periods of history. The tragic hero falls from high to

low status. This flaw causes them to make a mistake. There are five characteristics of a tragic

hero. After the tragic hero realize their mistake. In addition, the character Okonkwo and Oedipus

lit the requirement of a tragic hero.

The first characteristic of a tragic hero is that they go from high to low status. Okonkwo

was the best farmer and he had a lot of wives. Okonkwo accidentally killed Ogbuefi son by

accident and because of this he lost everything. “It was a crime against earth goddess to kill a

clansman and a man who committed it must flee from the land” (Achebe 124). He was sent away

for 7 years and the tribe burned his house down. Oedipus another tragic hero, went from high

status to low status because he left his city state as a king and eventually lost his kingdom. When

they found out he killed a different the king he went to low status. “Taws you who killed the

king, Oedipus,” (Sophocles 4).

The second characteristic is tragic flaw, Okonkwo and Oedipus both have tragic flaw.

Okonkwo tragic flaw is anger and he practices a lot of violence, “Okonkwo gave her a sound

beating and left her and her only daughter weeping.” (Achebe 37) Okonkwo gave her a sound

beating because he couldn’t control his anger. Oedipus’ tragic flaw is that he is blind from seeing

the truth. “I command that whoever among you knows the murderer of Laius tell everything”
 Pelagio 2

(Sophocles 3). Oedipus is trying to find whoever killed King Laius not knowing that he himself

killed the pervious king. After all, I learned that all tragic heroes have tragic flaws that lead them

to horrible endings.

The third characteristic of a tragic hero is they tragic mistakes. Okonkwo’s mistakes are

that he killed his son. He was out there trying to be tough he didn’t want people to think he was

weak and wanted to prove himself. When they were out hunting he went around and behind his

son and chopped him down with his machete. The people in his tribe said he should not hurt his

own son, but he did. They said, “That boy calls your father do not bear a hand in his death’

(Achebe 57). Okonkwo goes on later to feel bad about this and misses his son Ikuefwi. Now

Oedipus mistakes also and one is that he married his own mother, He did not know it was his

Mother but he did marry her. Oedipus then killed his father “He shared his mother bed took

things for shadows” (Sophocles 6). Overall these mistakes are tragic and will drag a person

insane because there so awful.

In conclusion, tragic heroes are not heroes their life’s are full of sad, terrible, and violet

events. Okonkwo life was sad because somebody came in and took over his culture and tell him

how to live. Oedipus had a terrible ending and died blind in the desert without being able to eat

nor seeing his own family. He stabbed his own eyes out because he feels so guilty. Okonkwo so

violet as a tragic hero but he murders the consular so he’s a violent and angry person. Finally,

aren’t you glad you aren’t a tragic hero.