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.