Macbeth

Provide examples and explanations.

What this question is asking you to do is demonstrate your skills in comparison as well as an understanding of the role cultural context plays in shaping our view of a hero. It is difficult to know how to give you much help without knowing what plays you plan to focus on but here is some general advice.

Firstly when you choose your plays try to read as much as you can about the time periods they were written in and try to figure out what makes your hero tragic within that context. For instance Shakespeare wrote "Macbeth" just after James I ascended the English throne and that makes the themes of royal succession and the divine order all the more significant. One could argue Macbeth's tragedy is his inability to reconcile his ambition with those things. A more modern example might be someone like Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" - a play written in 1950s America in which the notion of the 'American Dream' plays a big part. It could be argued that Willy's tragedy is his inability to reconcile his dreams with the reality of American life.

You should also spend some time reading about the notion of tragedy as a dramatic genre and the different ways it has been interpreted throughout the years. An Ancient Greek playwright would have had different notions of the conventions of the tragic genre to Shakespeare and a 20th century writer and those differences are important to consider in a topic such as this.

Be sure to remember that tragic heroes all have what's known as a tragic flaw in their characters, which brings about their downfall.  This will be a common characteristic of a tragic hero no matter the cultural context.

One of my Classical Lit students just wrote an outstanding paper about Seneca's Medea and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.  These would be excellent examples for you to research for the portion of your assignment pertaining to ancient Greece.  In addition, they both compare/contrast nicely with Shakespearean tragic heroes like Macbeth and Othello.  Be sure to check the eNotes information on all of these plays - that will help you a great deal in your research!  Good luck!