Why is Barry “The Flash” Allen a
Tragic Hero?
In the television series The Flash the main character Barry Allen
also known as “The Flash” plays the role of a superhero in Central City, where
the show takes place. Central city is a fictional location that has similar
characteristics as the real world city of Chicago. Set in the DC Comic Universe,
this place is not your average metropolis. The city is a regular society
until a man by the name of Dr. Harrison Wells attempted to create a Particle Accelerator.
The Accelerator had a meltdown and in a strange turn of events, gave various
citizens of the city superpowers, including the main character- Barry. After
the meltdown, the citizens of the city with enhanced abilities started to form-
most with intentions to harm society. The ability that Barry received was the
capacity to, after training and practicing, run faster than the speed of light and
along with this ability, came superhuman agility and stamina.
Barry Allen is a twenty-six years old
man. He is white with dark brown, almost black hair. His mother died when he
was younger due to a supernatural cause and Barry in turn, joined the police as
a forensic scientist. After his mother’s death he went to live with a family
friend, named Joe West. West is a detective which helped Barry when growing up
to pursue his goal of finding his mother’s killer.
Barry is intelligent and slightly socially
awkward. After he became imbued with his supernatural speed, Barry met Dr.
Wells, who urged him to use his powers to help others. He explained to him the
rise in “metahumans”, a term coined by Dr. Wells to describe humans with superhuman
abilities. Barry Allen was soon given the superhero alias, “The Flash” due to
the fact that when seen, all people can comprehend is the “flash” he leaves behind.
He also dubs himself “The Flash” after his favorite comic book hero Jay Garrick
nicknamed “The Flash”. Barry’s character is one who puts others before himself
which made him such a great example of a tragic hero in the show. His one major
flaw is that most of the decisions he made are based on instinct, which is both a good and bad thing. In the series, he is constantly learning from each
fight in both a mental and physical way. With each fight he learns of various
abilities as well as how to make better choices that are non-biased. An example
of this is when The Flash learns how to throw lightning. Preceding this event,
he had lost all trust in people and himself. He learns to trust others and
himself and defeats his foes.
In the television series, Barry Allen is depicted as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is defined in general as a character
who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his or her own
destruction. The six traits of a tragic as defined by Aristotle are anagnorisis,
catharsis, hamartia, hubris, nemesis, and peripeteia. Anagnorisis is the moment
when the hero makes an important discovery in the story. Catharsis are the feelings
of pity and fear the audience feels for the protagonist after his fall.
Hamartia is the tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero. Hubris is the
excessive pride and disrespect the hero has toward natural order. Nemesis is a
fortune that the protagonist cannot avoid, usually due to retribution of his
hubris, it may also be seen in a sense as karma. And finally, periperteia,
which is the reversal of fate that the hero experiences. All of these traits
can be seen in the television series.
Hamartia can be seen in multiple episodes,
and in every episode where the hero, Barry, has to make a tough decision.
Barry’s tragic flaw is that his decisions were swayed by his emotions and
often led to a destructive or unfortunate outcome. For instance, in one episode
Barry defeats one criminal and solves a lot of problems that the city was
having, but uses his ability to travel back in time and change the past to save
his friend. This alteration of time causes far more problems to occur with even
worse consequences. The most notable case is the final episode of season two
where Barry had essentially solved all of Central Cities problems. However, his
family had been killed and he travels back in time to save his mom, but this
ends up completely altering the future. The next season will show how he plans
on fixing this, but it still stands to show Barry’s tragic flaw that repeatedly
leads to the downfall of him, Central City, or both.
Another one of Aristotle’s traits a tragic
hero must have, hubris, can be detected from the very beginning of the series.
The very concept of the show is an example of hubris. Barry disrespects and
defies nature with every action he takes. Barry’s powers are supernatural, therefore,
every time he uses them, he is defying nature. Barry changes natural order with
every villain that he stops, but results in a change of order in the extreme
when he switches events in time, saves someone important, or stops a critical
catastrophe or events such as this. Barry doesn’t necessarily disrespect the
laws of nature; he simply paid no attention to the laws when he worked.
The third trait that can be seen is Barry
Allen as The Flash through peripeteia, the reversal of fate the hero experiences.
This can be seen many times when Barry travels through time as it often leads
to more problems than solutions. This can also be seen in many situations where
Barry trusts his instincts and does something risky. For example, in an episode
he is given the choice to either give up his speed or save a friend. It is
instances such as these that show just how tragic of a hero Barry really is.
The fourth trait that Aristotle used to define
a tragic hero that Barry possess is anagnorisis. Almost every episode is an
example of this or had an example of this in it. Anagnorisis can be seen every
time Barry learns how to defeat a villain and every time he solves a problem. A
major example of anagnorisis is when Barry discovers the Speed Force. The Speed
Force is essentially the ability to access and control the motion and
progression of the universe to move time and space itself forward. This is the simplest
example to recognize of anagnorisis.
The fifth trait Barry possesses is
nemesis. Instances of nemesis occur when Barry runs into Zoom. Zoom stands in the way of Barry on many of
his missions. Zoom is Barry’s long-standing rival and the
inescapable agent of his downfall. His goal is to reap as much havoc to Barry’s
life as he can, ranging from harming his friends to the loss of his powers. Zoom is the exact definition of nemesis due to the fact that he is
from the future. Because he is from the future Barry can never truly stop him, which
leads to the future failure of The Flash.
The sixth and final trait Barry possesses
are catharsis. Catharsis are the feelings of pity and fear the audience feels
for the protagonist after his fall. The audience feels these emotions after
every loss and often during and after a fight when it looks like Barry might
lose or is losing. The producers throw in these scenarios to obtain a reaction
from the audience to keep them interested in the story. An example of this is
when Zoom beats up Barry and “breaks” him. After
this, Barry feels lost as if he cannot accomplish much after this. This also
causes him not to be able to move as fast and results in a weaker form of
himself. These moments make the audience fear for his well being and pity him
due to his loss in speed and ability.
Barry is a tragic hero because all six of
Aristotle’s tragic hero traits can be seen in multiple episodes of The Flash and
can be applied to him. He uses his emotions to control his actions and often times
this leads to his downfall. Because of his nature as a tragic hero Barry has
constantly and will continuously put himself in precarious positions. These
positions will make him have to make a choice and that choice will always bring
out his qualities as a tragic hero.
