Bradley+1-3

3

Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are exceptional beings and they have an exceptional nature . They exhibit the same characteristics we find within ourselves , and within the people w ho surround these characters. But, they are raised above us and others by an intensification  of their life. We must realize that we have seldom met such a person . They all have a tendency to go in some particular direction: an incapacity to resist <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">the force <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">. The fundamental tragic trait is the fatal tendency to <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">identify <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">with one object, passion, or habit of mind <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">This fatal gift carries with it <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">a touch of greatness <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">when there is joined to it nobility of mind, or genius, or immense force. <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">The conflict in which <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">it engages s <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">tirs not only <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">sympathy <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> and pity, but <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">admiration <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">, terror, and awe. <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> In the circumstances where we see the hero placed, his tragic trait, which is also <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">his greatness <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">, is fatal to him. In most cases the tragic error involves no conscious breach of right; in some, it is accompanied by a <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">full conviction of right <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">. In Hamlet there is a painful consciousness that duty is being neglected; <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> The tragic hero with Shakespeare, then, need not be <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">‘good’ <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> though generally he is <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">‘good’ <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> and therefore at once wins <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">sympathy <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> in his error. In his fall we should be conscious of the <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">possibilities of human nature <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">. Hence, in the first place, At the end of the plan we realize that man is not <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">small <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;"> nor <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">contemptible; <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">man is a poor mean creature. He may be wretched and he may be awful, but he is not small. This central feeling is the <span style="color: red; font-family: 'times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">impression of waste <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">. often with dreadful pain, as though they came into being for no other end. <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 24px;">. In this tragic world, then, where individuals, however they may be and however decisive their actions may appear, are so evidently not the ultimate power, what is this power?