Tragic Heroes Essay, Research Paper

Romeo is a tragic hero because he fought and did everything he did to be with

Juliet but it still didn?t work out and he ended up killing himself to be with

Juliet, then finding she wasn?t dead just as he had drunken the poison. Then

Juliet saw her dead Romeo and killed herself with a dagger. The movie ?End of

Days? has something like this. The main character fights Satan because he came

to earth to take it over. At the end of the movie the demon possesses him and he

must throw himself onto a statue holding a sword killing himself but saving the

world, This is another example of a Tragic Hero. The movie Gladiator?s main

hero, Maximus Aries is also a tragic hero. It?s about a Roman army general

who?s empire turned on him and imprisoned him after Caesar made him the heir

to Rome. Caesar didn?t choose his own son because he was corrupt, when he told

his son this his son suffocated Caesar before he annoced to Rome who the heir of

Caesars empire was, and of course everyone would think it was his son, but it

was actually Maximus. Caesar?s son told some troops to take Maximus and kill

him in the forest but he escaped. They then had his wife and child crucified. He

then gets sold as a slave, to an entertainer who makes Gladiators. Maximus then

rises up and becomes undefeated and in the end and takes on Caesars son in a

gladiator match. Caesar?s son wounded Maximus before the match but Maximus

still managed to come through and kill him. He told everyone Caesars last dying

wishes and his own to take Rome and make it republic once again then Maximus

fell to the ground and died. These 2 examples are like Romeo because they died

or did something heroic and the outcome for them was bad and tragic. Tragic

heroes usually die or have something bad happen to them at the end of the story,

but they die for a good cause making it tragic that they died but they may have

saved the world, or be reunited with there loved ones.