3.2.3
Self-Realisation
Self-Realisation
Self-Realisation
The hero in tragic texts is usually self-deceiving before the text culminates in a moment of discovery and realisation.
Tragic texts
Tragic texts
- Throughout tragic texts, the tragic hero tends to be self-deceiving.
- However, there comes the moment where these heroes undergo a moment of discovery, journeying from ignorance to knowledge.
- It is in these moments that, for some critics, characters truly attain tragic status.
Willy
Willy
- Willy has a moment of self-discovery near the end of Act Two during his final confrontation with Biff, finally seeing the love Biff still has for his father.
- However, this moment is all too brief and Willy is almost immediately swept up by his old fantasies of Biff’s golden future:
- “That boy – that boy is going to be magnificent!”
Biff
Biff
- It is left to Biff to move from ignorance to self-knowledge.
- By the end of the play, Biff has come to learn that his future lies outside the city, telling Happy, “I know who I am, kid”.
Richard II
Richard II
- Shakespeare’s Richard eventually comes to recognise his mistakes, summed up in his last soliloquy before he is murdered:
- “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
- In The Great Gatsby it is left to the narrator, Nick Carraway, to provide this moment of self-discovery, imagining Gatsby before his death as finally realising the truth about himself.
1Introduction
1.1Introductions
2Act One
3Act Two
4Extended Passage Analysis
5Character Profiles
5.1Willy & Linda Loman
5.2Biff & Happy Loman
5.3Other Characters
6Key Themes
7Writing Techniques
7.1Structure
7.3Expressionism
8Historical Context
8.1Historical Context
9Literary Context
9.1Tragedy
10Critical Debates
10.1Introduction
10.2The Marxist Reading
10.3The Feminist Reading
10.4The Eco-Critical Reading
10.5Other Debates
Jump to other topics
1Introduction
1.1Introductions
2Act One
3Act Two
4Extended Passage Analysis
5Character Profiles
5.1Willy & Linda Loman
5.2Biff & Happy Loman
5.3Other Characters
6Key Themes
7Writing Techniques
7.1Structure
7.3Expressionism
8Historical Context
8.1Historical Context
9Literary Context
9.1Tragedy
10Critical Debates
10.1Introduction
10.2The Marxist Reading
10.3The Feminist Reading
10.4The Eco-Critical Reading
10.5Other Debates
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