I'm a little out of practice in the 'serious discussion forum' thing, so bare with me if this is utter rubbish...
I recently finished reading Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake. I later watched the BBC adaptation. One of my brothers also watched it. We both noticed something strange about the 'villain' of the story, Steerpike, which is that we both rooted for him and so his downfall became something of a tragedy.
For a while I wondered what exactly it was about Steerpike's downfall that I found most tragic. So I started to compare him to one of Tolkien's great tragic figures; Turin Turambar. The similarities aren't all that apparent at first but I think I've got an interesting enough angle on this to warrant discussion...
For me it was seeing everything that Steerpike had worked for falling apart. This character who we had followed from the dingy kitchens all the way up to the royal court suddenly has everything collapse down upon him. His motives may not have been exactly pure, but his drive to succeed and his dislike of the monarchy were things I admired. A sort of proletariat anti-hero.
With Turin we have a character who works hard and rises through the ranks wherever he goes. But again and again it all falls down on him. His continued pain and loss are things he fights through and comes to some triumphs inspite of them. The greater the loss, the harder he has to fight to build himself up again, so each fall becomes all the more tragic.
The loses for Steerpike all seem to happen at once. With a suddenness, he is exposed and forced to run for his life through a flooded Gormenghast. Turin's loses come in beats. Which is more tragic? Certainly, Turin's is quite striking in that it happens so often; so many tragedies hit him, but he recovers before the next until he cannot go on any further. For Steerpike it all crashes down in one fell swoop. Even his mind, his first and most valuable weapon, deserts him before the end;
Quote:
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There was nothing left, no, of the brain that would have scorned all this. The brilliant Steerpike had become a cloud of crimson. He wallowed in the dawn of the globe.
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His loss of mind is, arguably, what leads to his death. His loss of mind can be attributed to all his other loses. I found this, for some reason, slightly similar to Turin's death; weakened by all the tragedy of his life and almost driven mad ("Now comes the night!") he flings himself on his greatest weapon; the Black Sword.
A little contrived? Perhaps. But I'd like to hear other thoughts on what exactly is the nature of the tragedy of Turin. What, do you think, is the most striking element of his downfall?