Tragic Hero In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

According to (Tonner. 2008), Aristotle’s definition of tragic hero is that a tragic hero is a character who is noble or man of high status, has flaw in his character and commits the crime. Upon committing the crime, the character realizes his mistakes and has tragic death at the end of the play. Similarly, in “The Things Fall Apart”, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, the main character in the play can be considered as tragic hero because he fulfills all the criteria set by Aristotle such as being a noble or high status, having a tragic flaw, commits the crime which leads to realization and at the end he has tragic death.

Most of the tragic heroes are noble by birth or man of high status, but in case of Okonkwo, he was born to a lazy man and was certainly not a man of high status and noble by birth. However, he does have

In “Things Fall Apart”, Okonkwo suffers in many ways but largely when he kills Ikemefuna and when he is exiled. With those sufferings, he was disturbed emotionally and spiritually. Since then, everything seems downfall on his part and the struggle with the emotion and grief that grows inside of him results to commit suicide at the end, which can be referred as tragic death. Therefore, considering the tragic end in the play solidifies that Okonkwo is a tragic hero.

In conclusion, Okonkwo is a tragic hero because, in the beginning of “The Things Fall Apart”, there is a rise in the action of Okonkwo and sets the climax. After that it is observed that there is fall in his action, where Okonkwo commits a crime by killing 16 year son and this lead him to suffer. Moreover, it is seen that Okonkwo realizes his mistakes and at the end of the novel, he commits suicide. Considering all the reasons, there is no doubt that Okonkwo is a tragic hero like Hamlet or Oedipus, is typically a man consequence brought down by an insuperable conflict, or through his own