The way the arrow's pointing

[larryhammer]

It has been suggested that a tragic hero's strengths are also his flaws. Attempts to derive this from Aristotle's discussion of harmartia (often mistranslated as "tragic flaw") in Oedipus Tyrannus run aground on the fact that the old Greek was talking through a Thessalonian hat -- but it is nonetheless true that, as with Aristotle, the schema works remarkably well with that play: what made Oedipus a strong king (quick decisiveness, a passion for justice) also (as impetuosity and personal righteousness) got him in trouble. In the wrong context, any virtue can be a vice.

That's fairly straightforward -- it's how to write a character with more than two dimensions. Taking it another step, though, my thesis that a comic hero's flaws are his/her virtues -- making/marking the main difference between tragedy and comedy the direction of irony. In other words, in a satisfying comedy, the traits that get the protagonist in trouble are also (when finally applied correctly) what gets her/him out of it again.

Thoughts? Arguments? Assertions of personal hattery?

One caveat comes to mind -- I don't think this applies to satire, which despite surface similarities to comedy is a different form. Exactly how and why, I can't articulate. I'm not even sure I can distinguish between the two reliably -- what makes The Producers satire but not the Discworld novels? And most of Pratchett's works are perfect object lessons for the comic hero thesis, just as Oedipus Tyrannus is for the tragic hero. (Perhaps the difference is whether the catastrophe is resolved?)

---L.

Comments

[dbborroughs.livejournal.com]

The "what gets you in to trouble is what gets you out" line of thought was often the set up for many screwball comedies where the hero, say Danny Kaye, is brash about something unintentionally and then later uses the ability to act that way to get him out of the situation in the end. More times than not the trouble is unintentionally gotten into. You see the same pattern in fairy tales and many heroic adventures where the hero, say brave little tailor type bluffs his way into trouble only to bluff his way out of it.

[larryhammer]

Classic Trickster tales. "Please, Br'er Fox, please don't throw me into that briar patch!"

---L.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Hunh. It might also be true for, say, Pratt and de Camp's Harold Shea stories. I'm thinking of the dungeon scene with Heimdall.

[larryhammer]

Indeed, yes. And most of the Belphoebe episodes.

---L.