Bourgeois Tragedy - Heroes in Classical Tragedy

Heroes in Classical Tragedy

While ordinary people had always been the subject of comedies, classical and neo-classical theorists asserted that tragic heroes should always be men of noble rank. Aristotle articulates this idea in ars poetica (The Poetics) and it figures prominently in later ancient writings on drama and poetics. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century critics, including the influential German Martin Opitz, perpetuated the theory that only members of the higher classes were capable of suffering harm serious enough to deserve dramatic reenactment. This rule was followed throughout Europe for centuries: usually, princes and members of the nobility, such as Andreas Gryphius' Carolus Stuardus (i.e. King Charles I of England), Jean Racine's Phèdre (the wife of Theseus, a mythical king of Athens) or William Shakespeare's King Lear, serve as tragic protagonists.