To What Extent Can Bosola Be Considered a Tragic Hero?

To what extent can Bosola be con cheekred a tragical hero? let worthy minds neer stagger in distrust/ to suffer expiration or embarrass for what is just. / Mine is another voyage. Thus the dying Bosola concludes his last speech and, in doing so, ends the life of a voice whose very temper is at odds with the others and with himself.For Bosola is a paradox as a malcontent, he delivers breed after line of poisonous verse insults old women sneers at the Cardinal and Ferdinand, whom he sees (justifiably so) as having manipulated him and maintains an around universal apathy towards the rest of the sources in the words of Brian Gibbons, a stance of disgust inclining towards the misanthropic1 and yet, for all his shortcomings, Bosola begins to exhibit a change of heart that we would not otherwise go expected from such an odious character.He begins to redeem himself, both by revealing a more sympathetic side to his persona and by ultimately sacrificing himself in order to kill Ferdinand. This inherent duality within Bosola a duality which proves to be both his d profess come up and his salvation is closely tie in with the classical popular opinion of the tragic hero that he should neither be wholly good, nor wholly evil, and that there remains a mean between these two extremes which the tragic hero is meant to occupy2.While the Duchess is chumped from the outset as the protagonist and, arguably, a tragic heroine in her own right it is left to Bosola, when all the others have been killed, to avenge her. Moreover, Bosolas lowest act his killing of the chief antagonist, Ferdinand serves partly to reconcile him with the audience by ending his life with a good deed, Bosola redeems himself in our eyes and we finish the play with a renewed respect and pity for him.By no means, however, does he necessarily satisfy all the classical criteria for the role of tragic hero he is of a relatively low social stand the classical tragic hero was typically a man of high social ranking whose fatal flaw, or hamartia, resulted in an inevitable fall from grace and power. Bosolas role as a malcontent a notion which implies a restless, disillusion spirit is essential to the part he has to play as an antagonist to the Duchess and Antonio. As soon as he enters in Act I, scene , this bitterness is instantly revealed in his address to the Cardinal I do haunt you still, I have done you better than to be slighted thus. We ar shown a man who, while perfectly willing to carry out orders, is unwilling to be snubbed. This reveals an license of character in Bosola, which, unlike the character of Iago in Othello (whose sadism and cruelty place him firmly as the play antagonist of the play) lends itself to a strength of spirit that will ultimately lead him to rebel against his employers and avenge the Duchess.This contrariety in what he allows Ferdinand to instruct him to do and what he eventually does could be taken to be a tragic flaw one which leads to his downfall. This essential dichotomy in Bosolas character that his cynical nature would have the Duchess fail, but his unexpressed empathy would have her survive3 leads us, unavoidably, to pity him his contempt leads to the Duchess death, but his compassion leads to the death of her enemies.The notion of the tragic hero as a victor and a victim is also intrinsically linked with the concept of the tragic hero. Were we to lay out that Bosolas role as a tragic hero is a convincing one, necessity predicates that he would need to have suffered either immense physical or rational strain and have overcome it to the extent that humanitys innate strength of will and character is reaffirmed or that by sacrificing himself, Bosola somehow achieves salvation for others in the play as Raymond Williams puts it, others atomic number 18 made completely while he is broken4.While it is a moot point as to whether he undergoes any suffering, we may safely say that his death is not entirely a sacrifice, and thus his role as victim is almost entirely negligible his motives for killing Ferdinand are not limited to the avenging of the Duchess. As we have seen before, Bosola despises the two brothers he and his brother are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools and so does not kill them entirely out of some affection for the Duchess like the opportunist he is, he leaps at the chance to wound Ferdinand (now my avenge is perfect sink, thou main get to of my undoing ). Thus, Bosolas apparently selfless act has a variety of incentives, ranging from the desire to take revenge on the Duchess murderers (for, although it is he who actually kills her, it is Ferdinand who instructs him to do so) to the final chance to dispatch of his masters. Although this scene is typically Jacobean in its goriness three characters die in quick succession the dramatic impact of Bosolas death upon the audience is immense.Whether he dies a tragic heros death is indisti nct, but the scene shocks us enough Websters orchestration of the climactic fight allows a form of catharsis to take place, so that the audience is left with a sentiency of relief the antagonists have been punished and justice has been served. It is Bosolas questionable moral standards, however, that ultimately prohibit him from beingness designated a tragic hero.Drawing from other plays, it is possible to argue that there are characters whose integrity is called into question King Lear in his selfishness and hamlet in his rejection of Ophelia and yet these qualities are always balanced (if not outweighed) by their respective characters greatness of character. Bosolas contempt for an ethical approach, his petulant obedience to the two brothers and utter aloofness in the face of human suffering all mark him out as a character whose flaws outweigh his virtues.At his death, therefore, we are left not solo with a pity for a character whose downfall is tragically inevitable, but a lso with a sense of satisfaction that the antagonists received appropriate retribution, and that Bosolas last act was not one of altruism, but of individualised vendetta. The notion of the tragic hero, both in the classical and the contemporary school is one which is constantly being questioned and redefined our concept of the tragic hero today is vastly different to that of the Greek and, to an extent, that of the Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights.The characters of Oedipus, Hamlet and Willy Loman (in Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman) are all undoubtedly tragic heroes in their own right, but the criteria which make them tragic heroes are invariably different. To that end, therefore, our consideration of Bosola will never be a comprehensive one. One thing, however, is obvious he is not a tragic hero in the tralatitious sense of the word. Although there are some tragic elements to his portrayal, there are others which run so perverse to any concept of the tragic hero that it is impossible for us to claim him worthy of the title.We may safely say, however, that while he may not wholly be a tragic hero, he is neither wholly an antagonist he is only a misguided everyman who proves to us that even ordinary people can overcome their subjugators and triumph in the end. 1 Brian Gibbons, An Introduction to John Websters The Duchess of Malfi (1964) 2 Aristotle, Poetics XIII (350 B. C. E. ) 3 Zena Goldberg, Between worlds a study of the plays of John Webster (1987) 4 Raymond Williams, Modern Tragedy (2006)