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How does Richard from Shakespeare's Richard II embody an Aristotelian tragic hero?
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Richard in Shakespeare's play embodies an Aristotelian tragic hero through several key characteristics. He is of noble birth as the King of England. His tragic flaw, susceptibility to flattery, leads to his downfall, resulting in his deposition and death. While challenging, audiences can sympathize with Richard as he gains self-awareness by the end. This evolution is marked by a shift in language and a final soliloquy that reflects his understanding of personal failings.
To properly answer this question, we need to first establish what qualities Aristotle laid out as necessary for a tragic hero. We know already that most Elizabethan tragedy adhered closely to these Aristotelian guidelines, although Shakespeare was known to bend the rules more than other dramatists.
According to Aristotle, a tragic hero had the following characteristics:
1. Must be of noble birth—this is inarguably true of Richard, as he is the ruling king of England.
2. Must suffer from a tragic "fatal" flaw which brings about his own demise—in the case of this play, his fatal flaw is his susceptibility to flattery. Richard is led astray by flatterers to the extent that he can no longer rule his country, which means he falls prey to attack by others. He does not cultivate loyalty in his followers.
3. The tragic hero must suffer a reversal of his fortunes as a result...
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of this fatal flaw. Again, in the play, Richard is deposed and ultimately killed because he does not possess the qualities expected in a king. His flaw allows him to be easily led; he is indecisive and susceptible to others' charms. He places others above his wife, and the text implies that he is homosexual, all things which contributed to his downfall.
4. The audience must sympathise with Richard. This is a trickier part of the question to answer, as Richard's flaw is on display more consistently than that of, for example, Othello. However, a good actor can certainly make Richard seem at least as sympathetic as Macbeth: he is a man who has never been exposed to the correct guidance, and, ultimately, he learns late in the play that this is the reason he has been betrayed.
5. He must, at the end of the play, know himself better than he did at the start. The discrepancy between the first half of the play and the latter is marked by the language: the first half is, unusually in the case of Shakespeare, in rhyming couplets. From the point at which this changes, we see the character of Richard begin to change. His final soliloquy before he is killed makes it evident that he has gained a greater appreciation for his own status in the world and his own failings.