Things Fall Apart
Greek tragedy features much in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, and is basically the form which the book takes to impart its story. Okonkwo, the protagonist, can be compared to a classic example of a Greek tragic hero, but before we begin, an introduction and a brief outline of the Greek tragic hero in all his glory.
The word “tragedy” is derived from the Greek word tragoedia, meaning “goat song”, which described the chorus’ entrance as they wore masks and goat skins in imitation of Dionysus, the Greek God of wine. In the tragedy, Aristotle’s Greek tragic hero has to possess a few essential qualities that will ultimately result in the “catharsis” (purgation) of the feelings of pity and fear the audience has towards the destiny of the ill-fated hero, which is the aim and objective of every successful tragedy. Firstly, tragic heroes are usually born into nobility, which endows upon us the fact that they are responsible for the own fate. The irony here is that, although they are usually powerful and charismatic, and no matter how much power they wield in their hands, they can never ever control their own destiny. This, in addition to a tragic flaw they usually possess, curtails their potential for greatness and results in their downfall by the end of the tragedy, when they are doomed to a fatal error in judgement due to this flaw. This is the “harmartia” which every Greek hero must undergo in a tragedy- to rise to a position where he is almost certainly esteemed for glory, and to fall because of this reversal in fortune. In analyzing the Greek tragic hero, it is vital to keep in mind that the Greek hero in question in stuck in a situation which is almost inescapable from; for example, Oedipus could not prevent his own birth. In the end, it is his “harmartia” which brings the hero down, even though he has not truly done anything wrong in context. As a result, the audience experiences the catharsis because the hero, although fallen, still wins a...