Tragic Heroes

Paper Summary:

"As Richard B. Seawall states, the tragic vision expressed in art and literature "calls up out of the depths the first (and last) of all questions, the question of existence: what does it mean to be?" Different figures in literature and history have answered this question in different ways, but an examination of different literary works shows that this is a prime subject in literature and that writers in different historical periods are trying to answer the same basic question.

From the Paper:

"As Richard B. Seawall states, the tragic vision expressed in art and literature "calls up out of the depths the first (and last) of all questions, the question of existence: what does it mean to be?" Different figures in literature and history have answered this question in different ways, but an examination of different literary works shows that this is a prime subject in literature and that writers in different historical periods are trying to answer the same basic question.

William Shakespeare in Hamlet has the main character not merely asking what it means to be but whether it is worthwhile to be at all. Hamlet considers self-destruction as he also contemplates the meaning of his own existence: "As a liberally educated Christian humanist, Hamlet approaches his problems by thinking about them, by attempting to reason them out, before ..."

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