In the novel things fall apart by Chinua Achebe,
Okonkwo is being portrayed as a tragic hero. According to Aristotle’s a tragic
hero is portrayed as “a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw
(“hamartia”) and experiences a dramatic reversal (“peripeteia”), as well as an
intense moment of recognition (“anagnorisis”)”. Okonkwo was known to be a
leader a hardworking member in the society with no limitations to what he can
achieve whose tragic flaws were his great fear of weakness and failure. As his
downfall and his death satisfies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.
Okonkwo was known to be as a man of war and
action, as a high member in the Igbo society, as he holds a strong position in
the village due to the fact that he had shown “shown incredible prowess in two
intertribal wars”. Die to his hard work he became wealthy and recognized
amongst the nine villages in Umuofia. Okonkwo was a man that wasn’t afraid to work;
on the contrary his fear of weakness derives from his father Unoka as he had an
unproductive life and a shameful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was
not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure
and weakness…. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear
of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father
was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and
children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more
money because he never paid back.” Unoka
had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had
to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to
conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father
and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
Like many heroes of any tragedy, Okonkwo tragic
flaw, also makes him excessively proud. Okonkwo’s downfall “death” is the
result of the changes that had occurred when the missionary came in “British”
to the Igbo society. As the introduction to the missionaries lead the tragic
flaws of Okonkwo become worse. Okonkwo interprets a change as weakness, and as
a result of his interpretation Okonkwo only knows how to react to change
through anger and strength. Therefore a satisfaction is obtained, “hubris” or
prideful arrogance, from the fact that he is a traditional, self made man and
thinks that to change would mean submitting to an outside force
The Ibo culture had made Okonkwo a hero and a savior
towards their society, but the Ibo culture had changed when the invasion of the
missionaries had occurred, and looking at Okonkwo he would rather die than be
humiliated by his enemies only to attain his pride, therefore by committing
pride he prevents the missionaries from getting revenge because he had killed
their messenger. Aristotle’s statement, “Man, when perfect, is the best of animals,
but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all”, embodies the
rise and fall of Okonkwo in things fall apart. Okonkwo, like many tragic heroes
before him, maybe a hero but his tragic flaw prevents him from achieving true
greatness as a human being
