A middle class person can be a tragic hero. A tragic hero typically is defined as a great man, who falls from prominence to worthlessness, and eventually dies. The tragic hero's death is supposed to affect the entire population, and the audience members are supposed to feel sympathy for the tragic hero since they believe a similar fate could happen to them. Early playwrights said that a middle class person could not be a tragic hero. They believed that the middle class had no dignity, and that a bourgeois hero's death could not affect an entire populace. However, in later works, middle classtragic heroes became prevalent because the development of modern science, a rising middle class, and the growth of the idea that all men are equal.
A middle class person can be a hero because of the foundation of modern science. By the early nineteenth century science became more popular, and was regarded not only as something dealing with broad, general laws, but also as a way of thinking.
The Hero Trilogy (Funker Vogt)
True Nobility
Cover for the album version of When Love Met Destr...Science was now a method of perceiving reality; it was a method that could not afford to overlook any details. Modern science insisted that no specimen was insignificant, and that every piece of evidence must be collected. Earlier ages had believed that some things are more important that others; whereas, the modern scientific age insisted that making abstractions, and not being interested in the total creation is falsifying reality. Modern science brought about the feeling that everyone is equal; so no longer did people think that a noble was more righteous than a lower class person. This meant that everyone, not just an upper class citizen, had noble traits; anyone could now become a tragic hero.
With the rise of trade in the early nineteenth century, many...