Villainous Character As Tragedy Hero

Dionysus is considered to be the patron god of theatre; the origin of tragedy isaccording to Aristotle from the hymns for Dionysus. Ancient Greek people derived superhuman power from the god they worshipped, and the super human power differentiatesDionysus is his vitality of life that enables him to recover from suffering, to be rebornfrom death. Ancient Greek people developed improvisations in Dionysus Festival to themost classic and powerful literature form--tragedy in human history. Ancient Greek poetsrevealed their ideas about tragedy in numerous works. Gods may punish human for theirwrong doings yet the most important for human is to possess free will and fight againstthis fate imposed by gods; for the mistakes out of wrong doings he must admit and takefull charge, since his social status forced him to be connected with people around them.This is heroism in most classic works for most of them are borrowed from mythologiesand epics. Drama is not specialty especially in ancient Greek; in England peopleentertained with miracle and morality plays. When Renaissance sprang up the ancientGreek culture brought new nutrition for local authors to grow and blossom. In name ofRenaissance they found new media to express bourgeois thoughts and desire, literaturebeing one of them. Christopher Marlowe is in this right moment, the declining of MidAges and uprising of bourgeois. He is a man beyond ordinary: died young but withseveral acknowledged works, daring to speak ill of God in public. In his work he madeinnovations that reflect both his thoughts and the social condition, and developed his ownconcept of tragedy. He first introduced heroes with villainy and vices, set up super humancharacters with giant destructive power on England stage. Barabas, in The Jew of Malta,is one representative of villainous heroes. Barabas’ free will is not against any god, butagainst the difficulties and for infinite possibilities; he acts with great assertion of choiceand responsibility, not to satisfy others but to accomplish his own life career with greatambition. His villainy is externalized by these two aspects, meanwhile is strengthened. Heis villainous on one hand, yet he is filled with the vitality of life to improve himselfregardless of all the difficulties and chains in surroundings. Marlowe’s works reflects hisattitude towards the situation in his time and for what human should live their life.