We get to know a character through the relationships they have with others

A relationship is the way two or more people are connected and are something we often base our opinions on people by.In

First we are introduced to Lear when he demands his daughters to profess their love to him in order to inherit the kingdom, this is the first relationship we see that Lear has. He makes his daughters praise him in order to inherit part of the kingdom and his power“Which of you shall we say doth love us most. That we our largest bounty may extend” In the quote Lear is wanting his daughters to worship him and feed his ego like your normal commoner would do so to make him feel superior when in reality he is their father not just their king.From this we are introduced toilers hubris and Hamartia , we get to know that Lear makes his decisions based off of his pride and

A connection is a logical relation or the link between two ideas, many pieces of literature we read and watch all have common components that we can associate to each other.We mainly do this through their genre.The genre of tragedy is one that has many different plots but one things remains in common, the tragic hero.The tragic hero is the character arc that we commonly see across old and modern day novels, plays and films allowing us to connect the texts together and experience catharsis and see a reflection of human nature.King Lear by William Shakespeare is a play that has used this classic character arc as well as Gladiator,Citizen Kane and Death of a salesman.Through these texts we can see how one style of character can be adapted and bridge through many different stories.

King Lear by William Shakespeare follows the story of the king Lear who makes an executive decision to divide his kingdom to his daughters and in doing so brings on his own downward spiral to the bottom of the food chain. His request for his daughters to feed his ego worked well in favour of the two fake daughters but the Cordelia who truely loved him and refused to over embellish her love was the one banished.Shakespeare presents his audience with Lear’s hubris and Hamartia early in the play to make us the audience invested into Lear.His need for praise when stating “Which of you shall we say doth love us most” draws attention to his want for worship cause its all he has known being king and is food for his ego.Lear’s treatment of Kent showed us his hubris once again when he compared himself to a dragon “come not between the dragon and his wrath” Shakespeare uses this to show that Lear believes himself to be almighty and powerful dragon showing he thinks very highly of himself and is very hubristic.The Hamartia and hubris go hand in hand in Lear’s case and these two components combined establish a bond between the audience and reflects the imperfect nature of us as human beings.We all make mistakes and have flaws this is how we as an audience can relate to Lear at the time he was making his decisions he was blind to what his daughters were doing and could only see the fact that they would fuel his ego. Shakespeare also gives us insight into the fact that hubris and into how stupid we can be as a race when we are blind to our need for praise and ego boosts and that it can lead to being taken advantage of us and others seeing us as a joke.

The film Gladiator by Ridley Scott follows the journey of Maximus a roman soldier and commander who has a fatal flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall much like Lear.Scott has used the typical tragic hero structure as well as roman tragedy and adapted it to a modern day film through his portrayal of Gladiator.Early in the film we learn that Maximus’s hamartia is his hubris just like Lear , he is a very prideful man and his pride influences the decisions he makes.Scott makes Maximus’s pride obvious to us when he decides to say no to serve Commodus because he doesn’t believe Commodus will be a good leader of Rome. Maximus’s pride exceeds his intelligence in this moment.Instead of saying yes and making Rome great he gives into his pride and out right declines.The death of his family later comes but Maximus is so driven by his pride he keeps going in a bid to take down Commodus even though he is nothing anymore, while also gives the audience their first cathartic experience.”My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next” this quote shows the pride he has in his self listing everything he once had and was and also shows his quest for revenge will never die until Commodus does.Another example of Maximus’s pride showing through strongly “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” this shows that Maximus perceives himself as very important to Rome and that what he does will always be remembered . Ultimately like Lear Maximus’s hubris leads to his death but in Maximus’s case he dies for his pride of Rome and taking down Commodus.In Lear’s case he dies because of his pride for himself.Scotts adaptation of the tragic hero allows us to experience multiple moments of catharsis through out and all actions that lead to these cathartic moments were driven by his hubris. Gladiator gives us an insight into how powerful a humans pride truly can be and the idea of regret and revenge.Its in our human nature to get frustrated, annoyed and disagree with what happens in our life.We can either be smart about it or give into our feelings and be prideful and seek our revenge.Gladiator shows this by letting us the audience aware of the fragility of the human race and by making us aware of ourselves.

Citizen Kane by Orson Welles is yet another example of tragedy with a more modern approach than the classic greek and romans.Citizen Kane shows how people can be driven by greed and shows the emptiness of the American dream that was such a prevalent goal in that time period.Charles Foster Kane began as a poor child who inherited millions through a dead relative , making him apart of the upper class.However that wasn’t enough for Kane he was always driven by his hubris which was his Hamartia much like Maximus.Kanes biggest conflict was his greed and how he was perceived which was purely driven by his hubris.”I’m an authority on what the papers will say, Signor Matiste, because I own eight of them between here and San Francisco.” this shows how big his hubris had become he not only was greedy for money but also control of people and how they thought, no one else could be right only him and his eight papers.For Kane nothing was ever enough.When he was rich and successful with multiple industries he pursued the newspaper and kept wanting his shares.When he had financial power he needed political power to satisfy his hubris.When he had a family who loved and cared about him it wasn’t enough he needed to have his mistress to keep him satisfied.By doing all of this he ultimately lost everything .Much like Maximus ,Kanes pride influences all the decisions he makes and it exceeds his intelligence.His materialistic drive made him form this fake life as his second wife Susan soon realised “No matter how much it cost you—your time, your money—that’s what you’ve done with everybody you’ve ever known. Tried to bribe them!”This shows how committed he was to living this falsified american dream and that his pride drove him to the point where he had completely faked everything, he has so much pride that he doesn’t even understand the concept of loving people anymore human connection.He is deeply flawed by his idea of success , he categorised it as his materialistic things he possessed.Citizen Kane gives us an insight into our human nature, sometimes we as humans can loose sight of what is important to be happy and successful in life.We get consumed by materialism and loose important human connections with people such as our family or friends .Orson Wells adaptation of the tragic heroes hubris was used as a reflection of the society at the time and warning.

The final text I believed connects to the tragic hero and especially with Citizen Kane is Death of a salesmen by Arthur Miller.Death of a salesman is a later interpretation of the genre of tragedy and is specifically an american tragedy.Much like Citizen Kane it shows how being driven by greed and the empty promise of the American dream can lead you losing sight of what is important in life and loosing valuable human connections.The Film takes place in New York and follows a salesman Willy and a montage of his memories , dreams ,arguments and confrontations before he ultimately commits suicide.Much like Kane Willys hubris was his hamartia , his pride to make his way into the upper class and chase after the dream takes him away from his family because he isn’t content with what he already has.He is deeply flawed by his idea of success and like Kane believes his success is determined by materialistic things and status.He is embarrassed by whole is and makes up a facade to appear as more “They laugh at me, heh? Go to Filene’s, go to the Hub, go to Slattery’s. Boston. Call out the name Willy Loman and see what happens! Big shot!” this reflects Willy’s pride and his increasing blindness to the reality of his situation and refuses to accept who he is and what he has he needs the american dream.In this process he looses sight of what is important, mainly his family because he is all consumed.Then ultimately leads to his death.Thirty years after the release of this film this is still very prevalent in todays society, many parents are out constantly working so they can conform to a certain kind of life for their children.This life being filled with materialistic things like technology and things that they think will make there kids and people love them but ultimately it just distances themselves from them.Arthur millers adaptation of the hubris of a tragic hero is put in place as a lesson to value what you have instead of always hunting for more, ultimately companionship is the key happiness.He shows us the danger of our human nature and how imperfect we truly are.

The main purpose and connecting feature of King Lear, Gladiator,Citizen Kane and Death of a salesmen is their portrayal of the trait hubris through their protaginists.While they are all presented in different ways and portray different ideas and time periods they ultimately reflect the imperfect nature of a human being ad how we sometimes let our pride guide us dangerously.The trait of hubris can lead us to greater things such as a poor perception of reality, revenge and the idea of success.All four of the creators of these texts aimed to show us traits that we can recognise in ourselves through these tragic heroes and their journeys.

Traditionally the genre of tragedy would be something an audience would experience in a play at a large theatre, but as time has gone on we have seen the genre of tragedy become apart of modern day film by being manipulating the key conventions of tragedy as established by authors such as Aristotle and Horace.Ridley Scotts Gladiator is is an example of this.Through Scotts use of film techniques such as costume and motif to show the audience their tragic hero Maximus, but also tapping into areas of human nature and evoking emotions from us the audience as a tragedy should.The opening scene and the slave scene both show Maximus’s tragic hero characteristics as well as elements of roman and greek tragedy.

The opening scene of Gladiator is used to introduce us to the protagonist of the story Maximus. First we read a prologue with the back story to the Roman Empire and then we are instantly introduced to Maximus in a battle in Germania. Beginning in the middle of battle and the story adheres to Horaces ideas on tragedy and more roman tragedy opposed to greek tragedy and Aristotles poetics.The opening scene acts as an exposition by introducing us to plot character and the problem and well doing this Scott is setting us up for catharsis.Techniques that Scott uses to manipulate the genre of tragedy and set us up for catharsis is his use of costume and motifs, from these of them we see the classic tragic hero characteristic of hubris.The first glimpse we get of Maximus is a close up shot of his hand with a wedding ring going through the long grass indicating to us that Maximus is a married man who values family and immediately we feel a bit of trust towards him.Scott has used this shot to connect us to Maximus and show he is someone we can relate to and is neither better nor worse than the audience , well also targeting human nature because as an audience and as humans we are taught to have companionship and this part of his costume sets us up for catharsis later in the film. From the shoulder upwards we see that he is wearing a fur on his shoulders, the fur on his shoulders shows us that he is high in the heriachy of the people of Rome and soldiers because a normal soldier would not normally wear a fur over top of their armer for battle.The wolf skin he is wearing also is literally Maximus wearing his loyalty on his back. Maximus’s costume is made from richer materials than his other soldiers. His costume has steel chest plates unlike the leather chest plates his other soldiers are wearing.Scotts intentions from his costuming choices is to introduce Maximus and show that Maximus is someone with excessive amounts of pride from his status as general. Another technique used in the opening scene is the use of motifs and specifically the use of animal imagery.We are shown many times in the first scene different animals that Scott has used to set the audience up for catharsis.The first animal we are shown is a robin on a branch, the robin is a symbol of passion and honour and is considered the divine bird.The robin also can represent Devine sacrifice which cold possibly be foreshadowing Maximus sacrificing himself for the good of Rome resulting in a cathartic experience for the audience.Horses are seen many times through out the opening scene, the horses show power and dominance.Then later in the scene we see a dog looking him in the eyes , dogs are usually referred to as mans best friend because of their loyalty.The dog looking at Maximus tells us he is someone to look up to and that he is someone worth being loyal to.Loyalty is something that as humans is apart of our nature we naturally respect and are loyal to people high status and people who earn our respect.Maximus clearly earns the audiences respect in the opening scene tapping into the audiences loyalty and sets us up for catharsis later in the film.Scotts intentions from his use of animal imagery is to give us a glimpse into Maximus’s hubris and his character in general as being someone noble and experience the human nature element of loyalty. In the opening scene of gladiator Scott has used both roman and greek tragedy techniques such s hubris and Horaces theory of establishing a vanilla and stereo typical tragic hero.Instantly we are connected to the tragedy genre from this.Scotts intentions from using costume and animal imagery is to show us Maximus’s hubris well also using the genre of tragedy to show us ideas of human nature such as companionship and loyalty, by doing this he has made the audience feel some sort of admiration towards Maximus as someone who we instantly support through out the movie and will ultimately feel more pity and fear for through out the film.

Maximus went from being the general in charge of the armies of Rome but his fate quickly changes, to now being dragged in a cage and sold as a slave to fight in the gladiator pits.Scott uses his choices of costumes and motifs once again to show the traditional conventions of a tragic hero.Through costume choices and motifs specifically animal imagery we see Maximus’s Peripetia.Maximus begins in a costume made from rich materials and is better than the average soldier to show us his importance, in the slave scene we see that his costume has had a drastic change.A man who was once a general is now wearing clothes that are worse than the average commoner.Maximus is now wearing rags and has minimal clothing and is covered in dirt and sweat, Scotts intentions with the change in Maximus’s costume is to show his peripeteia and the downfall of the hero. Ultimately this makes us the audience feel sympathy a key part of catharsis in tragedy. Sympathy is something humans naturally feel when others are put in a harsh situation or loose everything, Scott is once again tapping into the human nature of the audience as we are inclined to feel bad and sympathetic towards him then because of his situation.Another technique used by Scott to show Maximus’s fall from the top is the use of animal imagery.In this scene we are shown multiple different animals and hear multiple different animal sounds as well as dialogue.First we see of animal imagery is Maximus in a cage below them , Scott does this to show us he literally is worth less than the animals and make his peripeteia very obvious as they are stacked up above him and a monkey sitting on top of his legs as well as monkey noises in the background.The monkey noises in the background sound somewhat like laughter and can be seen as the monkey laughing at pathetic Maximus. Maximus’s arm and the wound is being cleaned out by maggots, once again Scott has used animal imagery to show maximises plummet to the bottom of the great chain of being and his Peripetia.Dialogue is also used to reinforce this idea when Juba say “Don’t die they’ll feed you to the lions,They Are worth more than we are” Scotts use of animal imagery also gives us some insight into the idea of the great chain of being by showing his fall from being a human at the top of the chain and then now he is right at the bottom below animals.Scotts intentions with the use of costume and motif were to show us the peak of his peripeteia while adhering to the Aristotelian characteristic of “from good to bad fortune” a key component to a tragic hero.Scott also wants to start the audience on their journey of catharsis .This is the first point of many that the audience feel pity for our hero and fear for our main characters future.This is the first of many cathartic experiences through out the film.

By using film techniques to manipulate the traditional conventions tragedy Scott has perfectly created the modern tragic hero Maximus.In the opening scene we are introduced to Maximus, form an attachment and we are set up for catharsis .Well in the slave scene we have our first cathartic experience in the film these two scenes compliment each other well to show Maximus’s hubris and peripeteia.Scotts manipulation has also been an imitation of action as Aristotle described tragedy to be, while also using elements of greek tragedy such as beginning in the middle and making a stereotypical protagonist.Scotts film gladiator plays with the audiences emotions like any good tragedy should by dangling hope in front of us and repeatedly takes it away making his film such an enjoyable tragedy.

The tragic hero is the main protagonist of a tragedy generally.In Aristotles poetics we learn that the tragic hero needs to be not better or worse morally than the normal person so it is someone the audience could identify with and can evoke pity or fair from the audience.Maximus is a tragic hero by roman and greek definitions.Though the roman and greek definitions for a tragic hero slightly there are common characteristics or plot lines that the tragic hero generally allows in both genre of tragedy.

The hero must be noble in nature ,but imperfect so the audience can see themselves in it.Maximus is a noble man he has and shows fine personal qualities or high moral principles, he was a man of noble rank he was the commander of the the emperor Marcus Aurelius’ army especially in former times.However he also has imperfect qualities about him

Gladiator begins right in the middle of Maximises story when he already has a family, he is the commander of the army,Marcus Aurelius thinks him as a son and that follows Horaces theory of media res beginning in the middle of the story instead of starting with Maximises back story.We begin the movie with a prologue, A prologue is used to give readers extra information that advances the plot. It is included in the front matter and for a good reason! Authors use them for various purposes, including: Giving background information about the story.The information we receive is about the battle of Rome taking over Germany under the reign of Marcus Aurelius showing that the main protagonist(Maximus) is close to the emperor and high up in the heirachy. In the first opening scene we see flash backs to wheat fields and a fair showing that his homes a farm somewhere in the country not a big city.In his flashbacks we can see a wedding ring as well as in the present shots that he has a wedding ring on showing he is married.His costume shows that he is high up in society because he is wearing animal fur on his back showing hierarchy and his armour is made of gold and rich materials and His costume is different to the general soldiers (steel chest plate rather than leather, sword on his hip, makes him look bigger) .His horse has a costume (rich material), not everyone has one.There is a jump cut after see a shot go maximises face and armour to a Shot of the robe flying away from a. branch.This is the first use of animal imagery in the film.The Robin symbolises divine sacrifice possibly foreshadowing maximises future sacrificing himself for the good of Rome after commodoses reign.

I do not believe that the film gladiator adheres to Aristotles poetics or ideas around plot.Aristotle believed that a tragedy is an imitation of action that is complete and whole and of a certain magnitude.”a whole is that which has a beginning a middle and an end”.In gladiator we can see that the film more coincides with Horaces theory of beginning in media res, the middle of the story instead of seeing maximises life story and how he became a well respected man.We begin in the middle of battle with symbols and film techniques to show us important things about maximises past.

Protagonist

A protagonist is the character the story revolves around , or the focus of the story.In gladiator the protagonist is Maximus the soldier of Rome and it follows his journey.

Characteristic

Characteristics are traits or attributes that makeup a character.In Gladiator we can see that Maximus posses the attributes of a tragic hero as well as being extremely loyal which is a wait that he possesses.

Hamartia

Hamartia is the characters fatal flaw, Maximises fatal flaw is his pride for Rome.

Hubris

Hubris is excessive pride that the main protagonist possesses in the gladiator Maximus has excessive pride

The Elizabethan/Jacobean world view was a way of life people believed in well Elizabeth I ruled England during the middle of the 16th century.In the Elizabethan times people believed in a divine order called the great chain of being.The chain is a system of hierarchy according to ones balance of spirit and matter.

The divine right of kings highlighted the superiority and legitimacy of a monarch. At its core, the concept of the Divine Right has religious and political origins, therefore furthering its legitimacy. As a whole, this concept states that only God can judge a monarch, because only he has the authority. It believes that a form of monarchical government is the most appropriate, and allegiance should only be sworn to the legitimate heir to the crown.

The state of England under Elizabeth I was very structured.It is considered she ruled from 1558 to 1603.The church was fully laid down when she was ruling swell as details of religion.National or rather central government consisted of the monarch, privy council and parliament.These three bodies would work together to rule the country, make laws, raise money, and decide upon matters of religion and national defence. She died in a way rather similar to king lear.James was born in 1566, the son of Mary queen of Scots and Lord Darnley.He was King of Scotland (as James VI) for 36 years before becoming King of England in 1603 and the first in the British royal line of Stuarts.James considered his rule to be by the “Divine Right of Kings” (under which he was considered appointed by God and not answerable to men), but all members of Parliament did not accept this belief. By governing for much of the time without Parliament, relying instead on a select group of “favourites” for advice, he cut the legacy of strong representative government established by Elizabeth I.

Shakespeare was educated in England and Attended King Edward VI school.Shakespeare would’ve taken Latin texts of pros and poetry.Students would have been versed in grammar, rhetoric, logic, astronomy and arithmetic. Music was also part of the curriculum. Students would have been regularly tested and physical punishments would have been given out to those who did not do well. Shakespeare had to leave school when he was 14 years old because of his fathers financial issues.At the end of each term classical plays were put on at Shakespeares school it is believed he coddle got involved in them.Shakespeares plays we based on ideas and themes prevalent in England.

The thought in tragedy is referring to ideas that are presented through out.An impact the