What makes troy maxson a tragic hero

Sign in. Page 1 of 2 - About 15 Essays. Read More. Words: - Pages: 6. Essay On The Tragic Hero In Fences By the mids in his play Fences, August Wilson created characters who underwent self-inflicted crises in accordance with the classical Greek tradition of a tragedy. Words: - Pages: 5. Words: - Pages: 4. Racism In Fences Fences is a play about how African Americans survives in sheds and difficulties they face to find work. Page 1 2.

Is Violence Ever Justified? Evil in the Lord of the Flies Essay. Ready To Get Started? Create Flashcards. Discover Create Flashcards Mobile apps. Follow Facebook Twitter. The protagonist of Fences, Troy is a responsible man whose thwarted dreams make him prone to believing in self-created illusions. Troy begins the play by entertaining Bono and Rose with an epic story about his struggle with a personified Death, or Devil, character.

Another example of Troy's ability to live in a fictitious world is his denial to his best friend, Bono about the reality of his extramarital affair with Alberta. Fences is largely Troy's story. What all of the play characters have in common is a complicated relationship with Troy. Troy's character creates the large and small conflicts with everyone else in Fences. Troy instigates conflict as a result of his ability to believe in self-created illusions and his inability to accept other's choices in life when they differ from Troy's own philosophy.

Rose often contradicts his stories about himself and versions of what happened in the past. Troy also aggressively disagrees with Lyons' decision to be a musician and Cory's decision to play football in college, as well as Rose's habit of playing the numbers. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.

Though Troy Maxson definitely wouldn't win any awards for congeniality, he's widely considered to be one of the greatest characters of the American stage. He's often cited as a perfect example of a modern-day tragic hero, right up there with Arthur Miller's Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman. Some critics even place Maxson on the same level as classical tragic heroes like Oedipus and Macbeth read more.

Wow, that's pretty highfalutin company. Our question is: how does Troy manage to play on the same team as these guys? For one thing, like every tragic hero, Troy has a clear-cut case of hamartia. This word is commonly translated from the Greek as "tragic flaw"; however, a more direct translation is "missing of the mark. Though he used be able to knock a baseball out of the park like it was nothing, he constantly "misses the mark" in his personal life. Like most tragic heroes, Troy does whatever he thinks is right.

Even though the people around him warn him that the things he's doing may have tragic consequences, he stubbornly pursues his own course of action. Troy's relationship with his son Cory is good example of how he misses the mark.

Cory is overjoyed because he's been selected for a college football scholarship. Like his father, Cory loves sports, and this is his one chance to go to college. Troy, however, is dead-set against Cory going off to play football. One of the greatest sources of disappointment in Troy's life is the fact that he wasn't allowed to play pro baseball.