Abraham Lincoln: The Tragic Hero
By Sam Delehanty
Background
What is a Tragic Hero?
- Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky.
- He had then moved to Illinois and Indiana with his family.
- He grew up with little to no education, mostly helping his father work by chopping down trees and collecting food.
- As he got older he became interested in books, and pretty soon would read anything he could find.
- One of the people he worked for said, "He worked for me, but was always reading and thinking. I used to get mad at him. I say he was awful lazy. He would laugh and talk, crack jokes and tell stories all the time..."
- A tragic hero is someone who is of a high estate, rises to greatness, then falls.
- Abraham Lincoln is a tragic hero because, aside from being the president, he was a role model for the whole nation.
- Then, because of his tragic flaw, he fell from greatness.
The Hero Was Doomed To Make a Serious Error in Judgement
Becoming a Tragic Hero
- Lincoln's serious error was thinking he was safe, even with one body guard.
- He should have taken action after his dream instead of simply becoming paranoid.
A Tragic Hero Must Have a Tragic Flaw
Realizes He Has Made an Irreversible Mistake
Responsible For His Own Fate (cont.)
- Abraham Lincoln's tragic flaw would be his lack of insistence.
- Although he did ask the War Department for extra protection, and it was denied, he should have demanded his request be granted.
- This decision could have saved his life.
Responsible For His Own Fate
Faces and Accepts Death With Honor
Lincoln's Fall
- Lincoln may have realized that not being insistent enough would lead him to his death.
- Subconsciously he knew he would die soon, but did nothing about it.
- “Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction ... nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” (Lincoln, Copper Union Speech)
Rise To Greatness
Being Born of a Noble Birth
- Lincoln's fall came at the end of his life.
- His tragic flaw took the best of him and he was assassinated.
- Ten days before the assassination, Lincoln had a dream. He said,“I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber…I soon began to dream. There seemed to be death-like stillness about me…I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible… where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this…I kept on until I arrived at the East Room…There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President' was his answer; ‘he was killed by an assassin!’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream.” ("A DAY TO REMEMBER: April 14, 1865.", Lincoln)
- Abraham Lincoln had accepted his death with great honor.
- Although he had subconsciously known that he was going to die, he stuck to his duty and that is a true mark of a tragic hero.
- “And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.”-Lincoln
- Undoubtedly, Lincoln's rise to greatness was becoming one of the best president's of the United States.
- He had taken this job with honor and worked hard for it.
- When Lincoln had lost his first election he thought that there was no way he would ever become president, but he kept persevering.
- Although Abraham Lincoln was not born of a noble birth, he still meets all the other criteria, going on to become the 16th president of the United States
- Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in the hidden woods of Kentucky in a log cabin.
- He was born to Thomas Lincoln, a Baptist and carpenter, and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who died when Lincoln was nine.
- His father had remarried to Sarah Bush Lincoln, who cared for Abraham like her own.
- Abraham Lincoln was responsible for his own fate
- He did not enforce his guards to protect him at the play
- On the day of Lincoln's assassination, before he went to the Ford's Theater, he had asked the War Department for a special guard. This request was denied.
- Abraham Lincoln had gone to "Our American Cousin" with only one body guard.
- This bodyguard had left his post and gone to the tavern for a drink where he was thought to have run into John Wilks Booth, Lincoln's murderer.
- Booth was a heavy drinker and a pro-slavery man and his hate for Lincoln was not hidden. He had tried an ambush on LIncoln three weeks earlier, but it was ruined due to Lincoln's change of plans.
Tragic Death
- Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, April 15, 1865 by John Wilks Booth, who thought he was helping the South.
- He was watching "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater with his wife and two others.
- Booth had shot at Lincoln from behind.
WORK CITED
- Database: Sifakis, Carl. "Abraham Lincoln, Assassination Of." The Encyclopedia of American Crime. 2nd ed. 2001. American History Online. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE52>.
- Database: Phillips, Charles. "A DAY TO REMEMBER: April 14, 1865." ELibrary. ProQuest, 1 Apr. 2001. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/elib/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=12&edition=&ts=38858FA6B355F94B9C57592475FBF6CE_1354580113444&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B118998232>.
- Database: Lincoln, Abraham. "Cooper Union Speech." American History Online. Facts On File News Services, n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://www.fofweb.com/History/HistRefMain.asp?iPin=E02280&SID=2&DatabaseName=American+History+Online&InputText=%22slavery%22&SearchStyle=&dTitle=Cooper+Union+Speech&TabRecordType=All+Records&BioCountPass=466&SubCountPass=630&DocCountPass=314&ImgCountPass=85&MapCountPass=31&FedCountPass=&MedCountPass=116&NewsCountPass=0&RecPosition=45&AmericanData=Set&WomenData=&AFHCData=&IndianData=&WorldData=&AncientData=&GovernmentData=>
- Website: "Abraham Lincoln." The White House. Www.whitehouse.gov, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln>.
- Book: Sullivan, Wilson. "Abraham Lincoln." The American Heritage Pictorial History Of The Presidents Of The United Sates. Vol. 1. N.p.: American Heritage, 1968. 381-98. Print. Washington-Hayes.