The Tragic Hero is a common figure in Western Literature, he provides the avatar by which the audience can experience the important catharsis necessary to good drama. This is important for the individual experiencing (yes experiencing) good art that should take them out from their ordinary life and allow the full range of emotions to be experienced. That is why in Ancient Greece Dionysus was not only the god of Wine but also Theater because both are linked to ecstatic experience. The Tragic Hero is the pinnacle of ecstatic experience in art, he allows us through his downfall to experience an emotional death and purgation.
In art the Tragic Hero can represent everyman facing dilemma (lit. 'two choices') a lesson shown by extremes. The first Tragic Hero was Achilles who had the choice of being a glorious warrior and dying young or going home to live long in obscurity, in the end he succumbs to his tragic fall, his hubris leads him to choose glory to his own destruction (but then we would't have our story or lesson.) This ideal can be seen in later Greek history with Socrates who throughout his trial and condemnation had the choice to be free: he could have groveled before the jury and friends even bribed the guards where he was being held to release him, Socrates choose to follow the will of the law since in his eyes there was no place he could go to be free of trouble.To anyone who has seen the movie, 300, can see the parallels with King Leonidas and dilemma.
The Tragic Hero will always be with us since mankind does not change and the world does not change. Every hard choice a person will face they will step into the shoes of this figure from pre-history with all his faults, glories, doubts, and suffering. “Men are the dreams of a shadow.” -Pindar
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