A Tragic Hero In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Aristotle described a Tragic Hero as a superior man of lofty class who plays tragic imperfections and discovers his fate by his own proceedings. Similarly, in Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart”, Okonkwo is a protagonist and also considered a tragic hero who commits tragic flaws, experiences a remarkable reversal and recognition, who holds a position of power and prestige in Umuofia but his tragic flaw is his fear of weakness and failure and later discovering his fate soon after his action.
Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. Okonkwo’s tragedy did not only involve him and his family, it also involved the whole society. He started as a sharecropper with no inheritance from his father. His hardworking made him wealthy farmer and respected man with three wives in Igbo community. His recognition rested on firm delicate accomplishment (Achebe, 1958, p.3). He was not a brutal man but his whole life was subjugated by fear, failure and weakness in case he should be found to be like his father. His father was a lazy, untroubled man whom had a repute of being poor and his wife and children had just hardly enough to eat

Okonkwo contravenes the tribe rule and beats his youngest wife during the week of tranquility and almost shoots his second wife who notes on his gun skill. He kills Ikemefuna, Nwoye's close friend who asks for Okonkwo's help because he was afraid of being weak (Achebe, 1958, p. 43). By trying to be a strong person and deciding to kill Ikemefuna and thrash his wives, Okonkwo not only decline his relationship with his wives and Nwoye, but also impairs himself psychologically. Despite these worsening, it is not until when Okonkwo kills one of the five British court members, that he discovers his tragic